O-Squad,
Final debrief has come and gone. Our year together is over. You’ve made it back home. Some of you may be there for a while and some of you may be leaving again very soon. It will all look a little bit different for each of you. What I want to write will reinforce things we’ve have already discussed but want to reiterate now that you’ve been home for a couple of weeks. But I believe these things are so important and I wish someone would have told me these things when I came off the field. Please bear with me, this is a bit long-winded.
First, remember that this process takes time. Take each day as it comes and process your feelings as they come up. Don’t try to rush through it or try to do everything at once. Some things take more time than others. It just depends on the person and what it is you’re trying to process. There are going to be days when you feel good and there will be days you won’t. There will be days with pain and sadness. But remember that the pain and sadness aren’t necessarily bad. They are an indication that your feelings for people, places, and life you love and miss are real. As overwhelming as they me be, the only way to move past your emotions healthily is to go through them. Sit in the good and the bad, as long as you need to. If you are sad then be sad for a little bit, if you are full of joyful then be joyful, and if you are angry then be angry. It doesn’t matter what it looks like or how long it takes as long as you don’t deny yourself from feeling what you need to feel when you feel it. The more you embrace and engage how you’re feeling on a given day, the less overwhelming your emotions become as they come up. With that, it’s okay to take a break. It is okay to rest and come back to it later.
As you reflect on the journey with the Lord celebrate the good things. Big or small they deserve to be celebrated. Have humility and thankfulness for the hard things. Take ownership of what is yours to carry and release what isn’t. This year was full of so much growth. But even as good fruit grows so do the weeds. Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 18 about harvesting both the weeds and the good fruit at the same time and keeping what is good and burning what isn’t(weeds). I believe that the same principle of harvesting the good fruit with the weeds applies as we transition in life. In each season there is good growth that Holy Spirit produced in us but at the same time, there is some bad growth produced by your flesh. Ask him to reveal what those things are. Sometimes it isn’t always obvious and we can’t always tell.
This is not the end of your story. The seasons you go through in life come and go like the chapters of a book. The people you meet are the characters that come and go in the telling. Each moment imparts and teaches you something different about who God is, who you are and just how much he has loved you when you look for it. He is orchestrating your lives to tell a story of how good He is and right now you are at the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. The lessons learned and the experiences that have shaped you will echo in your lives forever. What you learned in one chapter will be built upon in the next. You are the pages and God is the pen. You may not have the words yet but he is writing in detail the work that has been done and is hinting at the promises to come. As you journey with him you will learn how to share our story. It is moving, powerful, and it is worth sharing because it is a testimony to his goodness and faithfulness. The best part is that the best is yet to come.
Remember what the Race is and meant to be. The purpose of the race was never about what you finished. It’s about what you started. It was never about loving God more. It was about letting Him love you. It was never about how well you served God, your host, your squad, or your team. It was about your willingness to say yes. It was never about what you had to give. It was about giving it away. Your lives have been changed forever. The love, healing, and revelation that you have received is yours to impart to others so that you can receive something new from him who can do immeasurably more than we can ask or think according to the power at work within us(Eph 3:20).
Lastly, remember who you are. A lot has changed in you and I’m sure a lot has changed about home. It’s hard to spend a year abroad living so radically different from what we knew before the race and then be expected to just return to normal. How do you pick up an old way of life and carry on? To be honest, you don’t. But in the transition, as you move forward, it’s easy to get lost in the daily grind. It’s easy to default to old behaviors and habits that you were so conditioned to in that environment. When Joshua crossed the Jordan River to enter the promised land, he was instructed to stack stones. So that the people would remember what God had done that day for generations. Stack stones in your life so that you will remember. Remember how far you’ve come. Remember what the Lord has done. Remember that you were meant for more. Remember the identity that you have been awoken to. Remember how loved you are. Remember the gifts that you carry. Remember the power and authority that you have in the spirit. Remember your influence. You are not changed by your environment, you change whatever environment you’re in. Even in the states.
That’s it. I’m glad I’m writing this to you instead of trying to say it all in person because I will ugly cry, AGAIN…
It is hard for me to put into words what this season has been and just what you all mean to me. I have learned and grown so much more than I ever hoped or dreamed. You all are an amazing group of people and you are so full of love and life. I am so blessed to have met every one of you and so thankful that I got to have you in my life. Dream big, take a risk, fail a little bit, Love deeply, laugh till it hurts, and don’t settle for anything less than what God has promised. I’m excited to see where the Lord takes you cause it is going to be “SO GOOD”(couldn’t resist). Now that our time together is over and I’m not your squad leader anymore I want you to know that you will always have a friend and a brother who is always willing to listen, talk, laugh, cry, or hangout (if possible) whenever you need it. Even while I am on the field again.
I believe in you, O-squad. Always have. Don’t forget about me. I miss you dearly and love you so so much.
Much love,
Alex
P.s. – These are the exact words that the Lord gave me when I saw you for the first time:
“You’re walking with giants. Everywhere they go the ground shakes. They cannot be hidden. The only thing that is going to stop them is themselves.”
It’s just as true now as it was then. You are giants. Even if you don’t know it yet. The only thing that is going to stop you…is you.
