When I woke up tuesday morning, I had no idea what that day would entail. We headed down to the beach to snorkel; seeing God’s creation and wild life was truly breathtaking.
(For those who do not know, our ministry host blessed us with the opportunity to explore thesoloniki greece for 3 days at our own expense.. and I had no idea just how breathtaking it was going to be. We also had the opportunity to do street evangelism and share the gospel there which was also such a learning experience about what that looks like, and how different cultures respond to it.)
We jumped in the water and snorkeled over to a set of cliffs. I knew some people wanted to cliff jump, but that’s not really my thing and I didn’t feel like jumping off a 30 foot cliff into the Mediterranean sea. But I slowly found my feet following the others up the cliff and towards the ledge. My heart began to beat out of my chest and I knew in that moment I had to jump. My new years resolution this year was faith over fear. I told myself back in January that this was going to be a year of firsts. A year of stepping outside of my comfort zone and trusting the Lord with everything… and honestly that is a huge reason why I am on the race right now. God called me to take a year and spend it dwelling in His presense, and trusting Him to help me along the way. Trusting that He would give me the words to speak life into others. To live in community every second of everyday with strangers that have now become my family to me, and I couldn’t imagine life without them. Yesterday jumping off a cliff may not have seemed like a huge deal, but I took a huge leap (literally) in conquering fear, or as one of my squadmates says, “stomping out the devil” and his influence on my life. Even though it was terrifying, each time I jumped it became a little less scary, and the rush of free falling into the ocean became an enjoyable thrill instead of fear. so I’m sorry mom, but I’m going to keep taking risks. I’m going to keep pushing my comfort zone level after level until its hold on me is gone.
Pastor Raul, Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for helping me conquer fear one step at a time. It hasn’t been easy, but it is a process like anything else…
and it is only 3 weeks into the race.
I can’t wait to see what the rest of these months bring, and how much is conquered in them.
