One of the hardest things I’ve had to face this year so far is team changes. Coming into the race, we were told that our teams had the potential to change, and even when they announced our team at training camp, they outright said: “The team you will be STARTING the year with is: . . .” so I don’t know why I thought my team wouldn’t change.
Change, I’ve found, has become an essential part of the Christian Life. God doesn’t change, but He is a God OF change, thankfully. Could we imagine if God saved us, but just let us stay the way we were? I am grateful that God loves me enough to heal me and change me, to challenge me to become the best ME I can be.
That doesn’t mean pain isn’t involved.
Sometimes, I feel, pain is essential in our changing from glory to glory. If we aren’t uncomfortable, we’ll be content to stay in whatever situation we are in. Call it homeostasis. Call it laziness. All I know, is if it doesn’t ever get uncomfortably hot, I’ll never get up to change the thermostat.
They announced team changes at the end of Ireland, and I grieved. For some reason, I expected to spend the rest of the year with Koinonia. I was sad to lose the friendships I had found in that community. Part of me felt (and still feels) robbed, missing out on experiences that I thought I’d have this year. However, I know that this change is good, and I know that I’m going to grow in a way that I wouldn’t have grown with Koinonia. . . because I had become comfortable. I am looking forward to what this new team is going to teach me, and I hope to grow new friendships that will last.
One of the coolest things about this new team, is the way we decided our name. We had come together for the first time, and one of my new team members, Anna Mathews, talked about how she had been thinking, “She wanted to be so in love with God, that they had the same heartbeat.” Immediately, I had the thought, “When you come up to someone, and you can’t tell if they’re alive, how do you know there is life? You check the pulse.”
It stuck. That whole week, there was multiple confirmations we were on the right track, as our O Squad Coach, Tom Sipling, spoke to us about the “Rhythm of God,” and he mentioned the idea of how a rhythm is like a heartbeat. When we were anointing our newest Squad leaders, someone mentioned how our squad is starting to move to the same heartbeat, and right after that, our squad member, Brittany Priess, got up to sing a song she had written in Ukraine, and the chorus goes: “Listen to the beat of the Fathers, it’s thumping in our chests. It’s saying….Come up higher, come up higher beloved ones. . .”
Wow. How could we NOT lay claim to the name Pulse? Our goal as a team is to be the evidence of the Heartbeat of God. We want to be the way you KNOW there is life in Jesus.
So without further Ado, now introducing team PULSE.
So there you have Team Pulse. I hope to have many more adventures with these amazing people. I really do miss the other members of Koinonia, especially my new BF Carrie, but I wish them the best in their new teams, and I know that God is truly going to bless them all, and I know that we shared experiences we’ll never be able to replace.
Ministry Opportunity: If you would like to help my new team out, some of my members are having some issues with raising support. Lili and Anna are behind in their support. If you’d like to help them, please visit their blogs at: www.lilimejia.theworldrace.org or www.annamatthews.theworldrace.org
Thanks for all of your love, prayers, and support.
