aka Training Camp Update!!
I am convinced that between July 10th and July 20th about 107 days passed, that’s the only way to explain how these strangers became a community. It could be said that strangers can’t be family in 10 days, so I’m saying these strangers became family in 107 days in between July 10th and July 20th.
The Lord gives good gifts. Among the sweat, bucket showers, portapotties and a lack of silverware, the Lord gave me 43 good gifts and here’s a couple of my favorites.
Training Camp is unlike any thing I have ever experienced. The ground felt like it was planted on a different planet, the teachings spoken in a different tongue, the people rooted in a different love. But in reality nothing was different, the ground of earth, the voices in english, the people of God. I’m starting to think that all Christians should go through Training Camp, because while a few important bits of camp were centered around the Race, the heart of the camp was beating for the Lord. The weariness, the lack of showers, the sleepless nights, it all made normalcy abnormal and skewed the social norm. There was no more performance, no more obsession with appearance, no reputations to uphold; just 300 souls yearning for truth and life from the only living God.
The week was not filled with rock climbing or horse back riding, but packed with practical ways to connect with God: prayer and worship and prophecy based strictly upon the word of God and intentional steps to take while in community with the people of God.
These days of me, the Lord, the word, and raw community taught me a few key things. I have no one to thank but my Savior for enabling these brothers and sisters, mentors and friends to pour into me.
- I have a gift of discernment, but it means nothing if I don’t take it to the Lord. Discernment without wisdom in knowing how to move forward means nothing.
- I struggle with carrying burdens that are not my own, even though Jesus has reassured me I don’t have to. He took those burdens to the grave when he laid his life down, and I no longer am in the chains of earning my own salvation but am walking in the abundant life of freedom.
- It is not my responsibility to fix people, but my desire to reconcile what is broken is a gift from the Lord. But once again, discernment to know what is broken is useless without wisdom of how to fix the brokenness.
- Choosing to stay in the word is synonymous with choosing to stay in the truth of God; therefore when I let it go, I let go of God. His word is like fresh manna that is offered everyday, and as the best squad mentor says, “yesterday’s manna is maggots”.
- Looking to learn in humility trumps looking to correct in ignorance every time. Seeking to understand produces more clarity, more humility, more unity than seeking to be understood. The more we know the better we are at making steps moving forward; as opposed to making misguided pushes backwards.
Thank you Jesus for bringing me this far.
