One of the big goals for this year is that each Racer would be “walking in his/her gifting”. In the most literal terms this often refers to the five gifts listed in Ephesians 4 (Teacher, Pastor, Evangelist, Prophet, Apostle). In practical terms I think it means acting like the person God has always intended for me to be. The person I would be if there was no sin in the world. It’s a process.
Throughout the Race people have been saying that I “have this Pastor thing” on me. My favorite ministry all year has been to my teammates. I enjoy being available for them and I like being able to walk through life with them. I relish the opportunity to be their sounding board and to speak into their lives.
At our debrief in Kijabe one of our leaders, Mike Hindes, urged me to “wake up the Prophetic”. The prophetic is one of those giftings that’s kind of tricky because a lot of people look at it as some sort of magic fortune-telling. Really the gift implies using a lot of well-tuned discernment. You must be aware to the spiritual climate of the place you’re in and the people around you. Hindes told me he thought some of the prophetic could influence how I walk in my Pastoral gift.
Learning to walk in these places can be pretty tricky sometimes. You can forget that your gifts are really only about becoming more fully who you are. You forget that you don’t have to be doing anything all that special. You only need be more open to what God is doing in you and more bold about trusting that he actually speaks. Trusting yourself to bring the words you receive.
Leading into this last debrief, in Nairobi, a lot of us were feeling the effects of some thoughts Ian and I had bounced back and forth in Kenya, thoughts he shared in a blog series called “New Year’s Resolutions”. We expected Holy Spirit fireworks from the word “Go” out here on the Race. We found that often serving God can feel very normal. Many of us took those feelings and, I think, started running in the wrong direction. We stopped expecting the fireworks. We recoiled and failed to step out in faith. We failed to stretch ourselves in the Spirit. We were too scared, or too timid, or too something to be “walking in our giftings”.
So we came out of Nairobi with new teams and some new (or maybe only refocused) direction. Some of our leaders came in, grabbed us by the shoulders and shook us a little bit saying, “Hey, you’re still here to bring the Holy Spirit and defeat evil in the places you visit.” And we said, “Oh yeah, that’s right.”
