WE SURVIVED!
Anna & I returned home from World Race training camp late Sunday evening. It was challenging, eye-opening, but altogether beautiful. For 11 days, we were stretched physically, emotionally & spiritually while getting a peek at what our life will look like for the next year. The alliteration in the title offers a glimpse towards some of the challenges we faced but also the goodness and the glory of God that we were able to witness in Georgia.
Peanut M&M’s
While a significant portion of our food consumption for the week consisted of rice, beans, noodles, mystery meat & crickets (yes, the insect) – we were blessed by a pair of young couples who have chosen to answer Jesus’ call to adoption. At lunch every day, they were selling bananas, apples, chips, granola bars, soda, and our personal favorite – peanut M&M’s – with the funds raised going directly to their impending adoptions. While it was an adventure and a challenge to practice eating local cuisine, the snacks from the “Adopt Shop” were a welcome respite for us.
We believe so strongly in the power and the beauty of adoption. James 1:27 has long been on my heart as I believe it simplifies Christianity in an incredible way. “True religion is this, to look after widows & orphans in their distress…” We are adopted into God’s family the second we put our hope & faith in Jesus Christ & earthly adoption is a beautiful response by believers to live like Jesus.
Jesus never promised a comfortable, easy life but he did promise that he would always be with us. A life spent with Jesus is an abundant life; he loves to bless his children even if it’s not in the tangible ways we expect. Sometimes in life, we have to eat the crickets. But other times we will be blessed with mouthwatering soul-food, maybe even in the form of crunchy legumes covered in milk-chocolate.
Porta-Potties
If you have lived in any degree of relationship with me, you likely know (or can assume) that I live in a constant fear of portable toilets. While I understand nobody enjoys using a porta-pot, I spent the first 25 years of my life avoiding them at all costs.
What did I learn about Jesus from the rows of porta-potties that we got to know all too well this past week? In a lot of ways, it was a perfect example to me of the sacrifices that we need to be willing to make when we choose to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. But more than that, it points to the freedom that is on the other side of learning to live a life that’s not all about us.
It’s easy for Anna and I to look at this next year in light of all of the “sacrifices” we will be making and the things we are putting on hold: our comfortable (and new) marriage, our finances, our jobs and career progression, our family & friends, our entertainment and pleasure. This was incredibly hard, but the freedom comes from choosing to look at the opportunity that we now have rather than what we are giving up.
We truly believe that Jesus is going to radically change us over this next year and prepare us & our marriage for the rest of our lives in a way that we cannot fathom. In order to experience this growth & change, we learned that we have to be willing to take a step in faith and say “yes” – even if that step is into a porta-potty.. or the woods…
Prophecy
Until this week, I had always felt like I held a healthy view of the Holy Spirit. I grew up in a home that emphasized the Holy Spirit, currently attend an Assemblies of God church & had even witnessed some physical manifestations of the Spirit. This week rocked my view of God and completely humbled me. Unknowingly, I have put God into a tiny little box. It was easy for me to believe that Jesus and his disciples would heal the sick, prophecy & perform miracles. I “believed” it can still happen today.
The atmosphere at training camp was different. Anna & I love to worship, but the worship that we were apart of this week was unlike anything we had ever experienced. God’s power and the movement of his Spirit was on full display the entire week. There was some shock and the first couple of days were hard. But there is no denying that the Holy Spirit is alive and well within the World Race family and leadership.
Prophecy is a great example of the way in which I personally limit the Holy Spirit. It was foreign to me and I oftentimes viewed it through a lens of doubt. But prophecy is one of the more tangible ways in that we can step out in faith. It’s not always as scary or wild as I think we make it seem in our American Christian experience. When the Holy Spirit moves in our heart, it is up to us to listen & obey or muffle & deny. Let’s not make God smaller, let’s make him bigger.
“If you then, though you are fallen, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 11:13
