Wow! What an amazing 11 days in Gainesville, GA. Training camp was wet, itchy, and one of the most amazing experiences! The prevailing theme of my training camp was HUMILITY!
HUMILITY was shown to me in 3 facets!
It all started on my arrival! I get to training camp and what do I do? I jump on my high horse and begin to judge. Judge my teammates for being uninviting and I start assuming their stories, I judged how they (Adventures in Missions) worshiped and to top it off I immediately begin to boast of my backpacking experience and prowess (this one ends hilariously)!
Let me tell you how each of these things gets flipped around and ends up showing me a valuable lesson.
First, I judge my teammates! I assume they are shallow, uninviting, and immature. Wow! Over time, I found out how terribly mistaken I really was. My squad mates are some of the most loving, accepting, and vulnerable people I have ever met. They showed me that it’s not about how long you have walked with the Lord rather how deeply. People who are so new to the faith showed me what it is like to be accepting, to be vulnerable before brothers and sisters in Christ, and to worship with an unashamed passion!
Next, I judge how the team and leaders from Adventures in Mission worshipped. I mean come on, it took an hour to sing 4 songs!
Who does that?
Why do we have twice as much “make a joyful noise” time over actually song lyrics? That’s just unnecessary and awkward. Right?!?
PLUS, they bounce, raise their hands in the air, and even dance! That’s right they DANCE!
This did not compute well with my Presbyterian upbringing. How wrong I was to judge. How was I so blind? How did I ever worship my Lord and Savior without having an outward physical reaction of joy?
In 10 short days (more like 4) all these things I judged at first seemed like the only way to worship, it was all so natural.
Finally, I jumped at the opportunity to boast about my camping, hiking, and backpacking prowess. And for 5-6 days all was well. Through the rain, I still looked and sounded like the pro backpacker I portrayed. Then we got back from our “guy hike” and it all fell apart.
I got hit with poison ivy….to the face!
All my experience could not protect me from the humiliating allergic reaction that swelled my face like Aunt Marge in “The Prisoner of Azkaban”.
Each of these things served to show me how many ways I can be wrong! But through it all, I learned Humility. I was humbled in how I see people, humbled in how I saw worship, and humbled even in how I see my own strengths/hobbies.
