Hi friends!!
Normally I have a long list of topics on my heart that I want to write about regarding my ministry but this past week we had our “debrief” (a week to reflect on our first month) and my mind was completely overwhelmed with new teachings from our squad mentors. I am excited to finally have wifi to share some of the things I learned and what the Lord is revealing to me.
The first thought that comes to mind is my word for the month: FREEDOM!!
This was the theme of our debrief & I truly walked out of the week feeling more freedom in my life. Sometimes I get caught up in what freedom means to me versus what it means to God. I can look around at these other countries and feel so grateful for my freedom to be a white, female from America who has the ability to so easily roam around the world and get treated like a princess because of my background. It really does break my heart to learn more about how women are treated in these countries not just because of the government but because of their religion. The more I learn the more I want to share Jesus with others. Jesus gives us freedom.
Lesson #1 : Free people free people.
People walking in freedom help others walk in freedom. If we are unaware of the chains or weights holding us back in life, we cannot run as fast as God intended us to. We need to be vulnerable, we must be capable to be physically and emotionally wounded. If we trust our source when we get wounded we won’t question the good or bad (Matthew 26:36). We learned about inner healing and how deep we need to dig, past the emotions that come up but the identity root of those emotions. One exercise we did to get to the root was to ask these four questions when something came up:
What emotion are you bringing up?
What memory is that emotion attached to?
What lie have I been believing?
What truth do you want to speak to replace that lie?
(I love giving these tools away because they have helped me so much.. I hope they can help others too)
We were also asked to write down the rights we gave up in order to live this crazy life. Of course as an American society we are founded on rights so we grip so tightly onto our freedom and independence. However, Jesus call us to counter culture. If we give up certain rights and mutually submit to one another we can live in humility and live in healthy community….
(Some of my rights I gave up: control over my schedule, what I eat and my food budget, right to avoid conflict, right to sleep in a bed)
Lesson #2: God intended for us to live in community:
God teaches us how important it is to live in community because we are only as strong as our body (that being the body of Christ). I love the analogy that we each serve as a body part and if I am an arm I cannot function well without the legs or my eyes or head. [1 Corinthians 12:27 (NIV) 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.]
It has been a hard adjustment to abandon our families, our comforts and everything at home but it is so important to allow ourselves to surrender to this experience and this new family. When we choose to live on our own we are choosing a selfish life, a life focused on what we want, our own comforts and how we can serve ourselves. I constantly have to ask myself what it would look like to live a life unselfishly and serve others? I have to stop comparing my community here to my friends and family back home who just “get me”. I realize how much I took advantage of my friends and family especially when I acted out of jealousy, anger, pride or any other quality out of alignment with God and I so easily expected forgiveness without apologizing.
We have two responsibilities when living in community. The first is to tell the truth in love. We are responsible for calling our friends and family higher. We are responsible for speaking truth into each other but with gentle words because the truth can hurt. [Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.]
The second is we are responsible for how we receive. The verse that comes to mind is:
[1 Corinthians 13 (NIV)13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres]
What would it look like if we truly trusted one another? What would it look if we went past the words people speak and trusted each others hearts? This is easier said then done but trust is necessary in order to love. There will be transformational community when people experience oneness with God and with each other. Real community is a reflection of the trinity relationship. God created man to be in company, we cannot come fully alive on our own.
Lesson # 3: The “Let Go”
This is more of a personal lesson that will hopefully apply to those reading but as a christian I am told over and over that I cannot do things on my own, that I need Jesus. However, I have been trying for a very long time to take matters into my own hands and put MY best effort into everything I have done. I speak to God and I listen to him and there are times I choose to be obedient, but most of the time I live life according to my will not his.
I have come to this realization that I am willing to serve God in specific seasons or specific ways that fit to my plan. However this is one of the first times in my life that I am truly asking the Lord, What do YOU want from me? If God is the one who created me then he will know what is best for me, he can see my greater purpose. I am tired of trying to do it all on my own and now in a place in my life where I am willing to set it all before the Lord. This is a daily process of submitting to him but I am excited to be learning how to open my hands and let go of all the things I am holding onto and giving them to the Lord. I am making Romans 12:1-2 the verse I mediate on everyday.
[Place Your Life Before God 12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.]
Another great tool we learned about that we use on the race is called the THERE-HERE-PATH:
There = a goal or vision for the month. What we want to grow in or what we think God wants us to work on
Here= where we are at now. What is the season we are walking in now? What are our strengths/ weaknesses?
Path= tangible ways to get from our here to our there!
So if my there is to live out Romans 12:1-2 then my
here is a place of control, disobedience, fear that the Lord will take away my dreams and desires, scared of outcomes not looking the way I want them to, perfectionism.
My path will look like listening prayer to hear the Lord more clearly, asking God what he wants from me each day, digging deeper into my strengths and gifts to see what the Lord’s purpose is for me and of course leaning on my community to hold me accountable and build me up in this journey.
This is just an example of my there-here-path for the month but it can look like bigger or smaller ideas or visions as well. (Please feel free to as questions if you want to know more!)
I am so excited to keep sharing how the Lord keeps revealing himself to me in Nepal. It was an amazing first week getting to be back with my whole squad and reflect on our first month, but I am excited to be in ministry again and to get to know this incredible country and its people!!
