When you know you are fully loved, it changes everything. Not just partial change. Not just a few things.
Everything. 
Laying down expectations on our first night at camp
Last week at camp, as my squad prepared our hearts and minds for the Race, we were told that if we know we are fully loved and accepted by God, then we are fully trained. As I've shared before, I still struggle to accept this. I struggle to lay aside my worker mentality and allow my Abba Father to lavish His love and goodness on me. But it has been such a recurring theme in my heart recently that I can no longer deny the unconditional nature of His love. I ask myself why I would continue to jump out of this warm, safe place in His arms when He is certainly not sending me away! I wonder how guilt or need to perform could be stronger than the desire to be here in His presence and see His smile as He looks down at me.
My Papa loves me!
In the days since camp, I have found myself stepping into a whole new realm that sometimes seems too good to be true. I have learned two things about our Father that are shattering my reality: He is all-powerful. And He is head over heels in love with me.
I have this picture in my mind of a king who has limitless resources at his command. No one else in all the kingdom even comes close in power and riches. This king is ridiculously fond of his children. And boy, are his children flawed and far from perfect! Yet he loves to give them good things and seeks opportunities to meet their needs and give them above and beyond what they ask him for.
This image is transforming the way I pray. I do not have to wonder if my Father hears me. Nor do I wonder if He wants to do what I ask. Instead, I know that when I pray, I am coming before that King, my Father, who is enamored with me and who has complete authority. When I make a request of Him, I not only know that He can (without a doubt) do what I ask. He also wants to!!
I want to have His eyes to see the people around me. I long to have His understanding of their needs and His heart of love for them. Finally, I desire the freedom to come before Him confidently, not embarrassed that my request might fall flat, but certain that He will hear and answer.
We can live this way! Entering into each day with anticipation of what God will do in the lives of people (even strangers) we encounter. Expecting people to get up out of wheelchairs, to be freed of addictions, to open their hearts to Christ. We are His hands and feet, bringing heaven to earth!
My awesome brothers and sisters – this is D squad!
My teammate Katie drove myself and several other girls to the airport on Sunday at the end of training camp. In the midst of conversation, Katie commented, “I feel like my eyes have been opened to a whole new realm, and everything else is just filler.” Her words sunk deep into my heart and I cannot let go of this concept of “filler”… it plagues me! How often we live our lives for the "filler" and miss the real thing! It breaks my heart to think that our energy, our thoughts, and our time are so fixated and funnelled into “filler” things – what we are going to wear, what we are going to eat, where we live and how the furniture is arranged, what everyone on facebook thinks of our profile pictures and status updates… Geez louise!!
How many millions of ways is the devil able to distract us every day from the spiritual realm and the reality of what is happening around us? He is so devious! So often I live for the next latte or the next compliment on my outfit or the next runner’s high. What if instead, I stepped out of the physical realm into the spiritual and began to live in a whole new trajectory? To be able to say that I live for the next encounter with the Spirit of the living God! I live to see the smile on His face and to see lives changed as He reaches out through my voice and my hands to bring hope and healing!
Now THAT excites me! THAT is the life our Papa invites us into. And there's only one thing I can say to THAT… "Isn't He good?"
~Thanks to my fellow racers Robin and Denise for the photos!
