Holiness is not an assignment.
In essence, it is, I suppose. But not the type you can fill out absent-mindedly and hurriedly turn into the teacher.
I’m learning, little by little, it takes a lot of listening, a lot of prayer and a lot of reading your Bible (aka earnestly seeking God’s heart). It also takes a lot of dying to self, mopping floors, sweeping, washing other people’s dishes, letting the other sixteen women in your room have the shower instead of you (true story), and learning to choose joy. It can sometimes look like getting up at 5:30 to cook breakfast for 50 people. Truly, I would not have considered myself particularly awesome at any of these things prior to leaving for the race. However, now that we’re here, in the words of my teammate, Lynn, “We’re a bunch of messed up people put together, but together we’re awesome.”
The learning curve is huge. We are striving to produce, bit by bit, a culture free of slander and gossip, a culture that loves deeply and fully, but does not excuse even the small sins. It is difficult.
We have this thing called the 24 hour rule. If you go to talk negatively about someone, the person who receives this information informs you that you have 24 hours to take it up with the person you’re talking about, and if you don’t go and speak with them within that time span, they will take you to talk to that person. This allows for absolutely no leeway with gossip.
And if we’re being honest, don’t we too often excuse this sin? Maybe it’s because I’m a southern lady, but gossip and slander are often expressed, then “covered” by the phrase, “Bless his/her heart.” Let me tell you, this is entirely different than gossip. It means you’re decidedly choosing to love another person by refusing to project your bad opinion of them onto someone else. This is HUGE. Just the other day, I fell back into the habit of almost gossiping, but I dared not complete my sentence for fear of receiving the 24 hour rule from my friend. I’m not saying that the fear of conflict should keep you from approaching another person, in love, and expressing your emotions (update: my friend read my mind and forced me to bring it up during team time, anyway). I am saying, however, that these systems are in place to prevent gossip, and to encourage a positive (and biblical) environment.
Matthew 5:22-24
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Matthew 18:15
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
This World Race business also keeps us from feeling entitled to bitterness because we aren’t at home. Home is awesome, I’ll admit. At home, you can flush your toilet paper and you probably have a sweet washing machine/dryer set up. At home you have your own bedroom. At home, there is reliable internet that you typically don’t have to pay for. There are family dinners and holiday parties. Yeah, home is good. But we cannot allow ourselves to romanticize home nor *especially* our walk with God at aforementioned home. It is in our brokenness, our missing home, our lack of awesome septic tanks, our lack of Mom’s cooking (shout out to Debbie Sanders), and our learning new, godly behaviors that challenge us and shape us into the people God has in mind.
I would rather be that person than anyone else.
Grace and peace,
Sarah
p.s. these pictures are completely unrelated, but the kids at our ministry are SO. DANG. CUTE.
