Tension. That was the word I continually heard over and over during training camp. Our leadership wanted us to be fully aware of the tension we would feel and have to face while living life unscripted. When I heard that I kind of brushed it off and thought well of course there’s tension but I’m sure it won’t be that big of a deal.
For most of my life I’ve done pretty much whatever I can to avoid tension, especially when it comes to the people around me. I want everyone to be happy and I definitely don’t enjoy conflict or uncomfortable moments. In case you’re wondering what I mean by tension, let me give you a few examples my team has come across so far.
- Two people in the group felt led to go one way while the other two felt led to go a different way. Tension.
- We have a limited budget for food, and nothing you can afford on the menu sounds good. Tension.
- The hostel you’re staying at isn’t what you expected and the people staying there are completely different from you. Tension.
The good news is, I’m learning that tension isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you embrace the tension and work through it, you can see how God works everything out and often times in ways you couldn’t even imagine.
What I didn’t realize about tension is that I’ve had a lot of it within myself and my first reaction is to do everything I can to ignore it, hoping it’ll go away. But that’s not how it works. My teammates are amazing and if it weren’t for them, I’d still be doing everything I could to avoid the tension within myself. They’ve helped me to embrace it, simply by talking and acknowledging what I’m feeling. And the cool thing I’m learning is when I allow myself to press into the tension I’m also allowing myself to press closer into God. I am by no means good at it yet, but I know that God has some awesome things in store for my team and I as we learn to lean into Him, and embrace the tension we’ll face everyday. So here’s to the next 10 months of living life unscripted and learning to love the tension that comes along with that.
