Training camp. The best way to describe it would have to be DRENCHED. Completely and utterly soaked. It rained almost nonstop for the first 5 or 6 days of camp. All of our equipment — sleeping bags, tents, blankets, backpacks — and clothes were completely drenched. We set our tents up in the rain, took them down in the rain, and set them back up IN THE RAIN. It’s hilarious to look back at, but MAN I was not prepared for that. Full transparency: the first night, I texted my parents and told them I couldn’t do it. I wanted to go home. I’m glad I didn’t. Around the 7th(ish) day, the rain let up, we dried all of our things in the sun, and all was well.
In the same way that absolutely everything I packed got completely drenched, God has completely drenched my spirit with His Living Water. Each day, through every worship song, learning session, and team/squad meeting, God continued to free me from things I didn’t know I needed freeing from. Past hurts, present thoughts, and future fears. Things I didn’t even realize were strongholds. But God is funny like that. He reveals things to us at the right time. HIS TIME.
On one of the first mornings of camp, we did a Bible study reading John 7:37-38 “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” I remember getting a picture in my head of a river flowing into a dam, never reaching its wild, raging, roaring potential. The river was me, and the dam is a picture of walls and strongholds that I’ve built up against people and, yes, even God. Piece by piece, God was eroding the dam that I thought was so carefully built and perfected. By the last night of camp, I can joyfully and confidently say the floodgates were opened! Oh, hallelujah! I could feel it in my chest, my breath, my movement, my freedom to worship foolishly without restraint. Side note: the word Hallelujah comes from the Hebrew word “Halal” which means to worship foolishly, or to praise Yahweh.
God wants us to experience the same freedom here on earth that we will experience in heaven. Luke 11:2, the Lord’s prayer, says “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom is NOW. The time to worship is NOW. The time to reach people and make disciples and share the Gospel is NOW. I can’t express with words the freedom that God has filled me with. It literally feels as though a big black pit in the depth of my soul has been filled. Thank you, Jesus!
