I just got back from training camp – nine days spent in the hills of southern Tennessee. No cell phone service. No internet. Just beautiful scenery, my amazing new World Race family, and God. I didn’t really have expectations about what it was going to be like, which was probably good because they would have been blown away anyway. As was requested of me, I’ll leave the specific details of all that I experienced out, so that the mystery and excitement of training camp can stay that way for all future racers out there reading this. But trust me, training camp is AWESOME! What I can share, though, is just a smidge of what I learned. So enjoy!
Spiritually, this was a super challenging week for me, but in an awesome way that led to a lot of growth. I don’t know exactly why it is, but I feel like we often try to put thoughts and ideas and parts of our lives into a neat little box – we like things to be organized and pretty and within our understanding. But the past year I’ve been learning that our God is not a God that can be contained inside of one of these boxes, no matter how big we make it. You see growing up I’ve had these ideas about how someone can experience God, how God speaks to us, how God can be worshiped, even who God is and how he interacts with this part of history. But I’m realizing that there is so much more to God than I could ever imagine. This week I allowed myself to explore the many ways God might be speaking to me and sought out the Holy Spirit like never before. Sometimes it was scary, lots of times it was uncomfortable, but most of all, it was freeing and beautiful. It was powerful to realize that my God doesn’t fit inside of a box, but rather is “an endless ocean, a bottomless sea.” He is vastly bigger than any of my thoughts or ideas about Him, and every day I can continue experiencing Him in new ways and still will not have “reached the shore” of who He is. To me, that is a beautiful thing. So by seeking Him out this week, I was able to worship more joyfully than I ever have in my life, speak truth over my brothers and sisters in Christ, share love with a 95-year-old stranger, let down my walls, and in a moment of grace and peace, just sit by a well with Jesus, smiling and drinking HIS everlasting water. I even worshipped to a Pinocchio song, because with Jesus, “I’ve got no strings to hold me down.” 🙂 So my challenge to each of you is to seek God out in new ways – you’ll be surprised at how He shows up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4i9jMzGw9w <—Here is a video of Jonathan Helser, who led our worship for the weekend, singing "Endless Ocean"
And what did I learn about myself? Well. I already knew that the world was in trouble – so much heartbreak, hopelessness, desperation, hunger, thirst, pain, sickness, confusion and the list could go on and on. It needs a solution. It needs redemption. It needs a Savior. And I happen to be blessed enough to know of Jesus Christ, who fills that role. So instead of just trusting in my own salvation, holding my breath, and waiting to get to heaven to be in a better place, I intend to have a faith that LIVES and BREATHES. I want the Kingdom NOW. I will fight for the Kingdom, NOW. I will change the world. Because I can. Because God has called me to do just that. Because I am the answer. Because I am chosen. I am empowered through Him.
And guess what? I learned a little about you, too. Luke 17:21 says the Kingdom of God is within us, that it is already among us. God chooses to use us as His body and feet to actually change the world. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” All the brokenness of the world? YOU are the answer. YOU can bring pieces of the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. YOU can change the world. So…who wants to join me?
