It’s been just over a few weeks since I sat on a bus for about 32 hours and literally walked on foot across the border from Colombia into Ecuador (which I didn’t even know was a thing). Our first few days were spent in Baños for something called ‘debrief’. It’s a time where we reflect on the previous month, have sessions with our squad mentor, and do one on one time with our coaches and squad leaders.
God’s been teaching me a lot since leaving home, which only seemed to pick up speed once arriving at debrief, and has continued to stir in my heart since then. I’ve become very aware that I really don’t have God figured out. There’s so much for me to learn and grow in and I never want to become unintentional in my relationship with an unlimited and unsearchable God.
A lot of what I’m leaning into this month is around the idea of boldness. About stepping out and trying new things and not letting fear or bondage or shame write my story. If you let them, these things will suffocate you into silence and convince you that exposure will bring humiliation or rejection, or abandonment, or whatever other lies the devil likes to use. But the truth is God has given us varying degrees of talents and gifts, and He wants us to use them to advance His Kingdom. If I stifle and minimize what He’s given me, then I’m a poor steward and an agent of foolishness.
While we are here on this earth we are given the privilege of co-creating with the Creator as we seek to bring Him glory in the way we live our lives and posture our hearts. It’s a lofty yet beautiful task, that carries the weight of responsibility and work, yet finds rest in knowing His burden is light and we don’t have to strive to earn right standing with Him. Understanding our identity as fully loved children, chosen and equipped by Him, we must continually come back to the place where we check in to hear His opinion over anyone else’s. How dare I bury what God wants to multiply because someone might have an opinion about it that I don’t like. And multiplication isn’t for building my own reputation, it’s about giving back to Him the increase of my talents, that I may enter into the joy of the Lord.
My standard of success comes not from a worldly measuring stick, but from whether or not my Father can look at me and say “well done my good and faithful servant”. It’s a constant submission of my will and fears under His authority and Lordship over my life and walking daily with a spirit of humility, understanding I cannot do anything apart from Him, and yielding my life in obedience.
I want to have a Holy fear of the one who is worthy to be feared. To reverence and be in awe of Him. I want to quit putting God in a box. I don’t think I’ve ever been more aware of His faithfulness and more curious about discovering more of Him than I am now.
Growing in boldness is a byproduct of growing in intimacy with God, because what happens in the hidden places with Jesus will manifest in public. There is just something so life giving that occurs away from distractions when you give Jesus full access to the areas of your heart that need His love to flood in and heal and correct.
We’ve been given an invitation to live set apart from how the world chooses to live. To actually acknowledge that the living God dwells inside of us and walks with us, and it’s a tragic thing to downplay the magnitude of that by choosing to live in sin. We are daughters and sons of the King, that alone should beckon us to live differently. To live bold. Then others will see and be attracted to the hope that lives in us, and it will point them to Jesus. When we LOVE on them, even when we don’t agree with them or partake in sin, the Holy Spirit will have opportunity to convict them and open doors for life giving conversations.
That’s just a few thoughts from the month! Thanks so much for reading fam.
Y’all are the best.
Kaelyn
“Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure”.
Ephesians 1:4-5
