Greetings friends-
I am officially in DC "debrefing" and in my efforts to faithfully blog, I am writing one before we leave for Bulgaria in a couple days (how good am I?).
Today has been a sweet reunion of the G squad and all of us are shocked the time has finally come (is this real life?). Tonight we had our first "talkin to" about the expectations of us as world racers.
As a team they encourage the following "culture" > HIGH preference, HIGH consideration, HIGH safety, HIGH courage, and HIGH honor.
- What has occured in our culture to discourage this treatment to occur between every day people (honor, courage, safety, consideraton) ?
- How come being good and kind is seen as an unrealistic reality when all of us deeply long for it and ultimately want to be treated no other way?
- How come loving others is strictly a responsiblity of other people, leaving us exempt?
- How does the pain inflicted upon us by others justify our lack of good treatment for ALL humans and not motivate us to love more? Or love ourselves enough to demand better treatment instead of settling for less?
I think I know the answer and it starts in the Garden. Eve and Adam are shameless and in a perfect relationship with the heavenly father until they eat of the tree of life. Suddenly, they are exposed to feelings God did not create human beings to be able to handle > shame, embarassment, guilt. So the twisted plot of Satan begins and He has offically attacked the one thing God loves most, the human race.
It is not surprising that we all grow up with a variety of negative messages culture engrained in us. You are not good enough. You are not attractive enough. You are not athletic enough. You will only be loved if you make money, have the perfect body, and never bother anyone with your problems (fill in the blank).
We are scarred. Courage, consideration, safety, preference and honor become discarded in attempts to guard our fragile hearts that were first hurt by humans. We reason that all people are bad and we are on our own.
I'm about to be challenged to radically change the way I view community culture. Friends, you were not meant to hold onto the scars or be held back by the lies told to you along the way. It is a battlefield my friends and Satan will use any tools to keep you from truly living a life of freedom, a life for Christ.
Here's what I think our next move should be: THROW IT BACK in Satans face and proclaim NO MORE.
- We will be the courage. We will stick up for those who are beaten down, regardless of how it makes us "look" to those around us.
- We will believe in the things that seem unrealistic (Working for love of the job and not money. Giving up on the perfect image. Waiting for a relationship where we are treated like a King/Queen).
- We will instil a safe culture and rid the environment of gossip, accepting the differences of others.
- We will establish a culture of honor, respecting authority and bringing out the best in others.
- We will Consider others and place their preference above our own.
We can't change the world but we are ALWAYS in control and responsible of how we treat others. We can choose to be free of a culture that tricks us into believing all humans are bad and do not have the ability to treat others properly OR take a stand and no longer let culture dictate our actions. A life with Christ is a life of difficulty and challenge but freedom to be who we were created which starts by loving his creation. I can dig that.
Ellie
