I’ve recently arrived home from 10 days in Gainesville, GA for World Race Training Camp. And *y’all, there aren’t words.
*We have a lot of Southerners on our squad so ‘y’all’ just kind of made its rounds among us.
There aren’t words for the incredible bond and true love I now feel for 55 people who were complete strangers a few weeks ago. There aren’t words for the awe I experience when I think about the vastly different places we all came from and yet have been called to one mission and one purpose, to be the body of Christ together as we serve this next year. There aren’t words for the assurance I felt all week that this was my place, these were my people, and the World Race is absolutely my calling in this season. There aren’t words for the gratitude I felt knowing, in his grace, the Lord allowed to me to be fully funded before I left removing that burden from my mind so I could be completely present. There just aren’t words.
(There are, however, words for my souvenir from the trip, Bronchitis. Dumb. Really, really dumb. Ain’t nobody got time for that.)
Ahem.
As I begin to reflect on all the things I learned during Training Camp, there is one thing that stands out above the rest; a theme the Lord has been working on in my heart from the start of this World Race journey. Preparing for the blessing.
Now is the part of our program where I will instruct you to read Part 1 if you have not. This will all make more sense if you read Part 1 first. But, you do you.
As Training Camp began, my hope was to walk with open hands and an open heart. I wanted to, following the theme of what I’ve been learning, be ready for whatever the Lord had in store for me during this week to prepare me for his blessings. As the week went on, I was expectant as I waited to hear the Lord’s voice.
Day after day I waited on the Lord.
And waited…
“Meet with me, God. What do you have to say to me?”
And I waited…
“Any time now, Lord. Here I am! Just hanging out. Ready for you to speak.”
…
“Hello? Is this thing even on?”
Nothing.
I didn’t feel as though the Lord was saying anything to me. When I tried to seek the Lord’s face in prayer, I only got blurred pictures. When I asked to hear his voice and his prompting, all I got were muffled sounds. There was no clarity. I wondered why the Lord would show me only fragments instead of a full picture.
1 Corinthians 13:12 came to mind. It reads,
“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
“Show me clarity!” I prayed.
Finally, I felt the Lord say, “You’ve been missing the big picture. All this time, you’ve focused on how I was preparing you for the blessing, but what you didn’t realize is that I AM the blessing!”
Woah. How could I have possibly missed that? This whole season of focusing on preparation for the blessing and I failed to realize that the Lord’s greatest blessing to me, to all of us, is himself! The Great I AM is the blessing.
Sure, he blesses us materially, financially, relationally, experientially etc. but in all this, he uses good gifts to point to himself, the giver of all that is good. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, who never changes, who is always faithful, that we might see his goodness and glorify him!
When we look at 1 Corinthians 13:12, what changes between the “now” and the future “then?” It is being in the full presence of the Lord. The future clarity comes when we are with the Lord in eternity. And while we eagerly await the day when we will see with full clarity, God, in his goodness, allows us to have full access to his presence now! No waiting. Step right up. It’s free! And it is the best gift around. In the words of my roommate, Sarah, God is super-nice. So nice, that he would give himself to us, make his home in us, that we might receive him and know him, our greatest treasure.
In that moment at camp it was as if the fog was lifted, my mind cleared, my eyes and heart could see. It felt as though I had been holding my breath all of camp and could finally breathe deep. The Great I AM is the blessing. In his constant presence, his desire for me to know him more with every passing day, each and every way he reveals himself in my life and the lives of those around me, his blessing abounds.
I know that as I prepare for the World Race, I am being prepared to receive the blessing of God’s presence in ways I can’t yet imagine or fathom. My heart and mind are being prepared to receive more and more of him, to know him better and better, to walk with him more closely day by day. I am being prepared for the blessing, the one and only, I AM, to show up like only he can. I AM who I AM, he speaks to us. Revealing his heart, his greatest gift. I AM the blessing.
See? Super nice.
