A lot of times you go into something knowing exactly what to expect. For example, getting a tooth pulled while lemon juice is poured into your eyes. One might expect that may hurt.
Slamming your index finger in a car door while a bowling ball is dropped on your foot could also potentially hurt and cause an obscenity or five.
Getting hot candle wax thrown on your face while falling off your bike into a thorn bush full of bees would certainly not be comfortable. On a side note, if this unfortunate sequence of events happens to you, please tweet me the picture. I promise I’ll be laughing with you…
Another thing guaranteed to not be comfortable is World Race training camp.
I went into the week expecting it to be difficult. I knew if I allowed myself, or rather if I allowed God, it was going to change me. Some things deep within me were going to come to the surface. It sounded like it could hurt.
So, on the first day I dodged most of the bullets. A word stung here and there but I told myself over and over that these services were for everyone else and not me. My walls were solid and nothing could penetrate them.
On day two my defense forces started to let me down. My walls were crumbling! This was not good. I started to scramble. I began to worry that I might not be tough enough for this whole missionary thing. I continued to remind myself these services were not for me. My walls were built up, right? No preacher, choir or Holy Spirit was going to penetrate this heart, or so I thought.
By day three I was weeping like a baby in Kimberly’s arms. A hungry baby none the less.
What I was taught was simple. If I want to have any sort of an influence on the world around me, I had to let God influence the soul inside me. In order to touch heaven and change earth, I had to allow my Lord and Savior free access to my heart. No more walls and no more pride.
What I realized is that I couldn’t keep all the bad hidden inside of me and expect good to pour out. So, this past week I let go of the bad, and began to fill my heart and soul with good.
I found myself feeling abandoned, broken, and now empowered. The calling upon Kimberly’s and my life has always been the same and now it has been confirmed. We are now officially missionaries for Adventures in Missions, sponsored by hundreds of people like you, called by Jesus to serve him.
So after a week of no sleep, limited showers, lots of rain, and multiple sob sessions, I realized that getting hurt isn’t always so bad, as long as through the pain something new comes to life. Simple? Maybe. Easy? Negative. Necessary? Absolutely.
