For most of my christian walk I have heard the phrase “Don’t put God in a box!” A couple weeks ago I believed that I was truly allowing God to have free reign over my life. A couple weeks ago I was almost certain that I had experienced the maximum power and glory of Jesus. I had become so comfortable in the security of my American Christianity that I unknowingly placed God into the box that I was warned about. I’m not talking a refrigerator box or even a shoe box, I’m talking a ring box. I was trying to carry God around in my pocket and foolishly believed that it was possible to do so. However, in the last 10 days of my life, God freed himself from the silly little box that I held and became immeasurably bigger. So, with that being said let me tell you about Training Camp and how God did this amazing thing in my life.
Here is a quick glance at what a day in the life looked like:
Wake up in a tent/hammock
Take an early morning, ice cold, bucket shower (not as bad as you would think)
Pack up everything back into our packs
Head to an exotic breakfast which consisted of 8 people sharing a plate of food usually eating with our hands
Session and Training until lunch
Lunch (same as breakfast)
Session/Team-building
Free time
Dinner
Worship/Session/Processing
Picking spiders and centipedes out of your tent until you fall asleep.
In addition I have come to appreciate the beauty in a flushing toilet after two weeks of using a hybrid sauna-port-a-potty.
Now, the best part about Training Camp was the people. I was finally able to meet my squad and teammates in person after months of only knowing about them. These people are awesome, selfless, and Jesus-loving people. Everyone is so hungry for the Lord and filled with the desire to serve one another that I was blown away. On the first day we were assigned our teams that we will be doing most of the ministry with for the next 9 months. My team consists of all the guys on our squad as an opportunity to build a strong brotherhood between us on the Race. There is 9 of us total, so we are a little out numbered by the 40 girls that make up the rest of the squad. Throughout the next year please be in prayer for myself, Cy, Tyler, Nathan, Jesse, Andrew, Moncho, Logan, and Alex as God leads us throughout the world. We decided to name our team ‘RELENTLESS’ because we are men relentlessly pursuing Christ as Christ uses us to relentlessly pursue others. I love that characteristic of God.
While the people are great, God in them is greater. This is the exciting part; the most important part. I’ll start to explain God’s movement with worship. Growing up, I was never aware of the Holy Spirit during worship. So, when I walked into a room crammed with almost 300 people, barely any A/C or elbow elbow room, and felt pure joy, I was shocked. Worship, when the Holy Spirit is free to move you how He desires, is indescribable. This was the first time God escaped from my “box.” I experienced Him in a totally new way with a completely different connection. As the week went on, every session was very convicting. I learned about how to have real and deep intimacy with Jesus. For the first time I understood that there actually was a cost of discipleship and that I needed to count it in order to follow Christ fully (Luke 14:28-33). I learned that God is not safe and comfortable but He is the treasure that I need to give up everything for. We were taught how to live in community and how to be the church wherever we go. We were taught what it truly means to be Jesus’s hands and feet as a part of the body. I saw God’s glory in ways that I had never seen before in my entire walk. All of this and so much more God poured out onto us in just 10 days.
Before Training Camp I thought that I had God figured out. I was sure that the great things in the Bible were limited to their time. Now, I am dumbfounded before the awesomeness of the Father. I can never know all that there is to know because there is no limit. God is out of the box and He’s walking around and moving in unimaginable ways.
God has done great things in not just my heart, but my squad’s as well. However, I know that I am on a mountain right now and will soon have to set foot back in the valley. I ask that y’all please pray for my squad and I as we suit up to fight the enemy, because it is going to be a battle. Any prayer support that we can get is greatly appreciated and will help to strengthen us as we prepare for launch. Thank you to everyone who is partnering with me on this journey, your support has helped so much.
-Trevor
