G’day folks! Here I am with another blog post. I know, I know, the anticipation has been building and you’re all like, “but wait….what has been happening in your life since the last blog?!” Well, I am back to tell you that God did a big thing in my heart at training camp.
Training camp was 10 days of worshipping, laughing, hugging and getting to know the 32 people I will be spending the next 11 months with. We learned a lot about God and ourselves. It was a time to be completely open and vulnerable. I did not realize in that 10 days the specifics of what God was doing in my heart, but when I came home and started answering questions about how it was, His work in me became known.
In one of my first re-caps of training camp I said to a friend, “I just feel like I am supposed to help people understand their worth and that they are loved and that the reason they are loved is because they are a beautiful creation from their Heavenly Father.” Immediately, she looked at me and said, “Write that down. That’s important.”
24 hours after that conversation, I am reviewing my notes from training camp. On the first page, the very first line is a question. It asks, “Why are you here?” Next line reads, “Why has God called you to the World Race?”
All the sudden it all starts becoming a bit more clear. God used training camp to reveal to me my purpose on the race. Training camp was eye opening, soul searching and revitalizing. I felt unraveled, but stable. I was confident, but bewildered. It was as if my body was there, but my soul was swirling up in the clouds, dancing and crying with God, trying to find words to describe it. My soul is in a sprint and my body can’t catch up.
All the words in the world are not enough to adequately describe what God is doing in my heart. I guess the plainest way to say it is: I am not going on the race searching for a transformation to make my life better. I need transformation so that I can better love and serve the people in this world.
Not transformation in the sense that everything in me needs to change, but transformation so that everything good in me is pulled to the surface and that which is tainted is weeded out. Transformation so that my first prayer in the morning is not “Lord I hope today’s good” or “Lord I hope I can wake up today”, but “Lord show me who needs a word from You today. Show me who I can love harder today.” I am overwhelmed with feeling too small for my feelings and helpless in my pursuit to love people the way they deserve.
I know that many of you strive for this. We all want to be more “you first, me second” thinkers and do-ers, but MAN! IT IS HARD. I would love to hear from you on how you put this thinking into practice. How are you serving others today? What are you trying to get better at this week?
Here are some verses that encourage and remind me to love others better:
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” James 2:14-16
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:16
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4
I pray these verses bring you encouragement throughout your day. Thank you for reading <3
