Training Camp – Day 4
“For the morning, grab a piece of wood and write down some of your struggles that the Lord wants you to surrender to Him. You have five minutes. Then, we’ll be leaving on a hike with your piece of wood.”
Where to begin with a prompt like that?
I started the list with pride, then self-reliance, then my health (fears of being able to maintain it while on the World Race). I KNEW there were more things to write, but I decided that I would work on these things today. Maybe tomorrow I’ll work on other things. Thank goodness God had other ideas…
Beginning the walk, I noticed the flowers, the trees, the path–all the nature things that I absolutely LOVE. Slowly though, as time passed and the log became heavier, the Lord started to whisper about more things He wanted me to surrender…my hopes and dreams, my judgments, the ways I keep God in a box, my heart, my mind, broken relationships that still hurt, my tendency to be people pleasing…the list continued on. At first, I was offended. “God, why haven’t we dealt with these things before?” But, as I continued to walk and God continued to speak, I started to understand that laying these things down was not about judgment, guilt, or shame. Instead, it was about FREEDOM and becoming more of the person that God made me to be. What a great feeling!
By the end of the walk, my log was completely covered with things I needed to surrender to the Lord and I was totally SICK of carrying all of the garbage in my life. I climbed up to the top of a ranger tower where our leaders had placed a cross. After a few minutes of sitting in reverence and thinking about the list, I felt God whisper, “It is finished,” and with a resolute toss, I dropped that gross log on a pile of tinder to be burned at the foot of the cross. I am sure that God will continue to show me things I need to surrender–none of us are finished products. However, I know that I am beginning the discovery of true self and the freedom I KNOW that God wants me and every single person He created to have in their lives.
