I have been in Georgia since Thursday and Friday started my official day of Launch. (Non-fancy word for start of the 11 months)
The past few days I have had my intense training in finance and the best way to serve my team in that way, I have had classes on safety in the field, I have had great moments of worship (with my mom and sister and with just my team) and I have had training in other areas in the chance there is team role change.
I had to say “see ya later” to my mom, my sister and my nephew. Our last night together Dev curled up in my lap and listened to the message, after we went and got chocolate shakes from McDonalds and then we said our final “see you in eleven months”.
It was hard BUT here is what I know for sure; this will be the hardest one. The next time the Lord sends me (because there is no way this is the only time) will be easier, then the next and on and on will be easier. So at this moment the Father is getting to comfort us and push us all out of our comfort zones.
A few things I want to share about what has said while I have been with my World Race family is “You cannot give what you do not have”.
YOU CANNOT GIVE WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE….
We did an exercise earlier that asked us to write down the things that upset us, the names of people that do those things, and then our name next to those things. Whoa.
Forgive as you have been forgiven. We say we forgive, that we turn the other cheek, and that we love our neighbor but okay after the fifth time they took my parking space in the apartment parking lot, or the uptenth time we asked our kids to clean their rooms, or whatever it is….we forget to forgive freely. We forget to turn the cheek and we forget to LOVE.
I am going to some places and meet some people where love doesn’t exist. Not just Christ’s love doesn’t exist but NO love. Places where shame is so overwhelming it keeps them in their homes away form their neighbor. People carry regret, not knowing true freedom.
So if I cannot give what I do not have, I need to actively seek His love for me, so I do not forget what was given. I need to actively remember the freedom through the blood of Christ. I don’t want to say a prayer and then move on and forget my first love. To give it, I must have it. I must WANT it. I must invite the Holy Spirit to teach me to continually give what has been given to me. As I leave the states tomorrow and start the journey to Spain, I pray that I keep my first love, that I remember I cannot give what I don’t have and that I run after the Lord to have these things for myself and for others.
