We were a part of an experiment. This year, before training camp, the men of squads D, E, F, and G set out on a “Man Hike” with some of the Adventures in Missions staff. During the Hike a question was posed and it both shook me to the core, and set the tone for the rest of camp.
In this upcoming season, what are you looking to step out of, and step into?
Up to this point I was focused on making friends with the people I’d be spending the next year with, and finding out how to love everyone we were going to meet well. This question made me look at things in an unexpected way—it shifted the focus internally. As I prayed, the Lord revealed to me my struggle. Loneliness. Not physical loneliness, because you can surround yourself with community and still feel a hint of a deeper emptiness, but spiritual loneliness. The kind of loneliness which comes out of a lack of intimacy with Christ. It is the “I have a dusty Bible and a dead prayer life” kind of loneliness. As more time passes so does desire and discipline. This question was my awakening.
I’m finding the World Race is a lot of things: Ministry, Advocacy, Service, and Community (to name a few). For Racers it is a chance to reset; a chance to invest an entire year in one’s relationship with the Lord. Intimacy with Christ is the foundation. We want to see miracles and transformed lives—this is all the result of an intimate walk with the Lord.
I told the men of G squad (and I’m telling you), the Lord is calling me to step out of loneliness and to step into deeper intimacy with Him. I started to give of my first fruits, waking up a little earlier each day to spend some quiet time, not as a rule but out of a desire to draw nearer to Christ.
A couple days later, at training camp, we invited the Holy Spirit to come and fall afresh on our lives. We expected God to move mightily, but didn’t restrict our expectations to a certain way. As I worshiped with my hand raised and eyes closed I felt my arms grow light and a tingling sensation on my elbows. I started to sway. I was in the moment, and didn’t really understand what was happening until someone came over and started to pray for me. They said, “There’s something to this dance….” That’s what it was a dance. In a pavilion, alongside a bunch of new found friends in White, GA, I slow danced with the Spirit.
The next day during worship we danced again.
There is so much I could say about training camp. But I want you to know this: God is REAL, and He loves US and wants to meet us in our brokenness and in our loneliness.
This is not a World Race exclusive experience—experiencing God, and walking intimately with Him can happened anywhere.
Do you believe it?
In this season ahead, what are you looking at stepping out of, and into?
