As many of you all know, beginning in January of 2016 I will be leaving to go on an 11-month missions trip to 11 different countries. Something you may not know is that part of the requirements to go on this “World Race” is to go to a 10-day long training camp in Gainesville, Georgia.
Here I sit, in my parent’s house, reflecting on the past 10 days and what the Lord did and is continuing to do as a result of the time I spent living out of a tent, using porta-potties, and not taking too many showers. The main vein of thought, in my mind at least, is the phrase “the uncomfortable places.”
I heard this phrase during training camp in one of the many great sessions we had about a variety of topics. And looking back at my experience, it really describes what training camp meant to me and what this next year will mean to me as well.
This first thing that comes to mind is the physical “uncomfortable place.” Taking bucket showers with freezing cold hose water is not my first choice when I am home, nor is sleeping in a sleeping bag in a tent when it is less than 40 degrees outside. I also do not normally choose to wake up at 4 in the morning to pray over the people that surround me. But by being physically uncomfortable, my eyes were turned from myself to the Lord.
Next, I think of the emotional/spiritual “uncomfortable places.” I know that I suppress pain and I know I am not alone in that way. Nonetheless, during training camp we were urged to ask the Lord to show us any pain we have not addressed, and to begin the process of working through it with God. What an uncomfortable place that was. Feeling pain is not my definition of “fun.”
Additionally, I know that I have felt shame and that I am not alone in the crushing feeling of hopelessness that you are not good enough. However, we were advised to bring shame into the light, repent, to engage in a conversation with God about it and to seek freedom in Him, the freedom only He can provide. Shame can definitely be uncomfortable, if you ask me, but the freedom He gives in invaluable.
Finally, I know that I have suffered from social anxiety in the past. But this time, I chose to put myself out there, knowing that though I may be in an “uncomfortable place” at first, I would be in a safe place because the Lord was with me. And look at me now: I have a family of 35 people ready and willing to get to know me, encourage me, and love me while we do this next year of our lives together.
Comfort abounds in our society and in our day-to-day lives. The Lord has shown me over the past week and a half that next year I will not be comfortable, but uncomfortable is where I need to be. Uncomfortable is where growth happens, where relationships can be formed, where interactions can happen when they wouldn’t have before, and where the Lord can be your only comfort, the only comfort you truly need.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
^photo courteously of my wonderful teammate, Kate Campbell
