“You sound different.”
This is not what I expected my best friend to say to me when I spoke to her on the phone after World Race training camp. I was taken aback. This is not what I expected coming home to be like.
I expected to run straight to the washer when I came in the door (which I did).
I expected to take over the back porch, drying, airing out, and cleaning my tent and gear (which I did).
I expected to spend an hour in the shower, finally giving up after three rounds of shampoo and accepting the fact that my hair still just wants to smell like camp fire smoke (which I did … and it does).
But I did not expect this.
“You sound different.”
I did not expect to come home and feel out of place in my world, to look in the mirror and see a changed person. I did not expect missing my new family so much that it is almost painful. I did not expect to be a different person.
But I am.
“You sound different. You sound free.”
And I am.
Training camp was an absolutely phenomenal experience. I do not know that any explanation I can give will ever do it justice. God showed up, broke my shackles, and set me free. I am no longer a slave to my bitterness and lack of forgiveness. I am no longer a slave to my fears and doubts. This week I was free to be vulnerable, and God made me strong. I was free to dance, and the Holy Spirit soared. I was free to question, and Jesus answered in awesome and mighty ways. My chains are gone and I have been set free!
I now know what true freedom feels like, and that freedom is only found in Christ. In two months, I get to travel the world with my amazing new family, sharing that freedom and love. God wants to set His people, every last one of them, free! (and He does, if you let Him)
“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
2 Corinthians 3:16-18
If you would like to be a part of sharing the freedom found only in Christ, please help me by clicking the “Support Me” link and and donate to my World Race Fund.
