Thank you all for your patience. This is my last training camp post (about time, right??) I'm so sorry that I've been slacking so much on this blog. I promise to give this more priority in future.
So last y'all heard, I was struggling with some pretty tough questions of identity and listening prayer and the Holy Spirit. I had been trying to force the Lord into giving me exactly what I wanted when I wanted it, and clearly that never works out well. After the night I broke down, I spent the next couple of days really diving into Scripture, really figuring out what the Lord says about me.
One of the last days of training camp, we got our teams, the 6 other people with whom we would be doing ministry. We then got to go "make a memory." My all girls team decided to go to Chick-fil-a and indulge in a truly excellent Southern tradition: sweet tea and fried chicken. One of our tasks was to come up with a team name. We really wanted something in Greek or Hebrew (I guess because it sounds more impressive or something), but we didn't actually know any words. Well, I knew one: Karis, which means grace, and I only knew that because that's what my dear friend Meg named her baby.
We couldn't really agree on anything, so we decided to practice our listening prayer, and ask the Lord to revel our team name to someone. We joined hands, prayed out loud briefly and then began to listen. I had been so frustrated with this kind of exercise in the last couple of days, I'm still amazed that I was genuinely and expectantly waiting on the Lord. After about a minute, Isaiah 62 popped into my head. I had read it before, but decided to go see what it said. It is an amazing chapter about redemption and it only could have been the Lord that led me there. Isaiah 62:2-4 says, "The nations will see your righteousness and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of God. No longer will they call you Deserted or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah (my delight is in her) and you land Beulah (married)." That scripture could not have been more perfect for our team, and the Lord knew that and led me directly to it.
We are Team Hephzibah, which means "My delight is in her," because we are women who have been given new identities by our Creator, who loves us and delights in us.
