The World Race is built for community. There is no way around it. The structure basically guarantees that you will grow in community and understanding how to do life with people. People travel as a squad but spend months at a time in specific teams. You are always traveling with another person, and sometimes it feels like you are always within a few dozen feet of one of your teammates. Sure, alone time is hard to find. But if you are an extreme extrovert like me, you LOVE the otherwise “people overload” and every thing that comes with it.
Sometimes, it is hard. You fight and don’t get along with some people. But you learn to deal with it. You can’t run away or escape these people. You are stuck with them for better or for worse. So for the sake of mission and not wasting the awesome opportunity the Lord has for you and everyone this year, you work it out. And then you learn more about yourself and what it means to really LOVE people— both people you meet in ministry and the people on your squad.
I have grown so much in community this year. Here are some of the most obvious ways I have grown.
The Race has given me a chance to build relationships with people of many different backgrounds.
The Race brings people together from all walks of life, and each one of our testimonies highlights a different beautiful truth about God’s love for His children. I’m so thankful for the men and women of S squad, because they have let me in and chosen me time and again. I’ve gotten to form some of the best and deepest friendships I’ve ever made. And that’s because these relationships are rooted in vulnerability, hard truth, and Christ (most important of all). It doesn’t matter where we came from. We’ve all had a past of brokenness. We’ve all had our own struggles and been wounded. We all even carry wounds from previous relationships and friendships. Now we’ve gotten to love people with any and every background. And it gets easier and easier to love others knowing that the Lord has redeemed each of us. Truly no one is “too far gone” that the Lord can’t redeem them and bring them into a beautiful family of believers.
This year, I learned to give and receive feedback.
The World Race pushes for us to have team time (basically “family time” with the team). And each time we do, we also open the floor up for feedback. Feedback is based around the idea of calling someone higher to look more like Jesus while also affirming them in how they are currently reflect the heart of Jesus. I learned both to give and receive feedback in a healthy way. Ultimately, what the Lord taught me is that feedback isn’t about the one giving the feedback. Its about the receiver and whatever gold they can take from it. I’ve given and received some hard feedback as well as some “feel good” feedback. In the end, we just have to take it all to the Lord and let Him speak into us about it all.
I’ve learned to handle conflict in a better way.
Conflict is different than feedback. It isn’t rooted in “how to look more like Jesus.” Instead, it is built on the dissonance between our true identities as Christ’s image-bearers and the fallen state of humanity. The best way I’ve learned to handle conflict (both directed at me and originating from me) is to remind myself who I am really fighting and what the fight is really worth. Our true enemy isn’t people or their own ideas. It is the powers of evil. Shift your focus to the real enemy and you are able to work through your own “offense” much faster. Also, asking yourself what the fight is really worth can be a game-changer. Is your own emotional justification really worth losing that person as a brother or sister? Is it really worth it to word your argument that way at the possible expense of relationship? No. Love is always more important. It is bigger than your emotions. True adulthood is knowing that and taking ownership of your emotions so you can love through the offense.
I’ve learned to be vulnerable and choose it.
I love testimony-sharing now more than ever before! I learned early on in my Race that if we bring the things “hidden in darkness” to the light, we destroy them and their power on us. We are “vulnerable” for our freedom. And what’s more, we are vulnerable for the freedom of others! Revelation 12:11 says we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the *word of our testimony.* Isn’t that interesting? We seem to only talk about the part Christ’s blood has to play in overcoming evil (which is obviously HUGE), but very rarely do we emphasize our own part to play in the fight against darkness: our testimonies. But that is an important part of spiritual warfare, too. Since knowing and learning this, I’ve become OBSESSED with sharing my testimony and hearing the testimonies of others. This is partially how we fight our battles. Let’s go to war together!
I’ve learned to see people as they truly are— not by how we act or behave in the moment but how the Lord designed us to be.
This has been something I’ve grown in a lot since training camp last year. As soon as I met my squad, I began to see their potential, often times very clearly in visions and dreams. I knew how my squad mates were going to grow this year and even knew some of the gifts that they would be walking in. It was as if I saw the way the Lord designed them to walk, in boldness and power in their true identities as God’s children who partner with His Holy Spirit. The only problem was that most people weren’t “there yet,” and I had a hard time understanding that.
Conflict arose, and I began to see them plainly in the state they actually were in. And it made me frustrated. I began to think, “I must have been wrong about them. Maybe they aren’t really that great.” But instead of withdrawing from them, the Lord showed me a better way: love them through it. Jesus was reminding me that we are all in the process of being sanctified. We are all growing to resemble Jesus more and more. We really are designed to reflect Him (the way I saw people at the start of the Race). Frustrations and conflict arise (within ourselves and with others) when we don’t act like our true selves or live in our true identities. He showed me their true identities when I met them so that I would not lost sight of where they were going, even in the midst of conflict. And with that in mind, it’s much easier to love them.
Obviously, we are never done growing community. We are always going to be surrounded by people, and every person is completely unique. So every interaction will be different. But one thing is constant: godly love is supreme in every relationship. Let us love each other well just as Jesus Himself loves us.
In all things, be blessed!
AG
