Most of you know that a few weeks back I went to Gainesville, Georgia for ten days for training camp and met the rest of my squad. There are so many things to tell about this trip, but there is one word that I want to talk about and that is Crazy. Those ten days my squad and I slept in tents, built our own shelter, ate crazy food, and were put through scenarios such as half our gear being lost in “baggage claim”. As I met each teammate, I saw them through the lens of my Father, with great love, I became best friends with 40 other people, who upon arriving were strangers. This one blog will not do training camp experience justice. Although everything we did and were put through was crazy intense that isn’t the reason the word crazy had been put on my heart. Crazy was put on my heart because training camp taught me how absolutely crazy I am. I am crazy in love with each squad mate I have, crazy in love with each country I am going too, crazy about the 6 girls I have the opportunity to serve with for the first five months, but most of all I am crazy about the Man that was first crazy about me. Since I got home the country song ‘Crazy Girl’ by the Eli Young Band has been stuck in my head, but only the verse that says “crazy girl don’t you know that I love you” it’s as if Jesus had been singing it to me every day. I learned I am crazy in love with Jesus because He was even crazier than me. He was crazy for raising people from the dead, crazy for healing the sick, and crazy for loving the unlovable. After training camp I realized I have received all of those crazy things from Him. I was dead and now I am alive, I was broken and now I am healed (physically and emotionally) and I was unlovable and He loved me anyway. One night at camp we had a sermon about listening prayer then we had an extended time to worship. As I stood there worshiping and praying, I asked God ‘why are you sending me’ and clearer than ever He said ‘freely you have received and freely you will give’. I immediately knew He was talking about healing. Some of you may know that 6 years ago I had fractured a vertebra in my back. But what some of you may not know is that 1 year ago in August Jesus healed me. I was invited to church in Colorado Spring by one of my best friends. She told me Jesus wanted to heal me. That day she and her step dad laid hands on me and the craziest thing that had ever happened to me was the power of God’s healing hand resting on me. I walked out of church that day a healed women and haven’t had back pain since.
Shortly after the Lord had given me that melody at camp that night, one of the leaders walked over to me laid his hand on my shoulder and spoke the same exact words I heard from the Lord over me. He prayed I would have the boldness to pray for healing because freely I have received and so freely I will give. Now that is crazy stuff. Its crazy that Jesus healed me, its crazy that I’m leaving for 11 months, its crazy that Jesus is crazy about me and its even crazier that He has now asked me to be crazy like Him. In Matthew 10:7-8 Jesus said “Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick raise the dead, cure those with leprosy and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” that being said I know most of you have already told me I’m crazy and if you didn’t say it out loud the looks on your faces said so. Here I am telling you not only how crazy I am but how crazy Jesus is too. And He is just as crazy about you as He is about me. There is no finding out how crazy in love with you He is unless you are ready to be crazy enough to put your faith in His crazy love.
