Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose Kung Fu skills were the stuff of legend.– Kung Fu Panda
He’s a talented photographer and quite a witty writer, so I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll trace some of Salley’s story on the World Race.
This is how he begins his story:
If I could sum up in one word what I feel like the Lord wants me to do with my life right now I would have to say, “crazy.”To be honest I am tired at this stage in my life. Tired of being out of school and not feeling like I am doing what I am supposed to do; tired of feeling stagnant in my walk with the Lord; tired of complaining; and just tired of being tired. . .
The staff decided they wanted to play a symbolic-missionary game. The rules were slightly vague. Find your family, missionary, pastor, and church. Don’t go to jail and that was about it.
. . . One of the staff that I am friends with wanted to make sure I was getting the point of this game so [he] made it a point to harass me. At one point I was pushed on the grass and he began dragging me to jail. Now I am not really into hazing so I thought that this would be a good time to assert myself.
So you know what I did? I kicked him in the. . .
How could a guy like that not end up in some form of leadership? Regardless of any title he might hold, it’s his honesty with and acceptance of his brokenness that distinguish him. Last month, he shares a bit of his wrestling with God:
Two nights ago we were having a squad worship session. I was distracted and upset.
Upset that I was made to sit in on worship that I didn’t want to be a part of; upset the World Cup final was going on and I have missed every game this year except the first two because I was in a post-communist village in Ukraine; upset that I feel like I have a harder time entering into a place of worship than the masses; and upset that sometimes I feel like I fake it. . . .
I get tired of the same scene I’ve seen in church all my life because it doesn’t affect me. And then I become cynical and skeptical of my faith.
I think part of me went on this thing so that I could see miracles so that I wouldn’t have so much doubt about my own faith sometimes. I mean, let’s be honest. Sometimes Christianity sounds a little crazy. . . .
So then it comes back to me just wanting to see a miracle. To hear God’s voice clearly. . .
He articulates really well what some, if not most, of us have felt or struggled with; we recognize themes that are common to our own stories. And just as Nathan had prayed before the race –
Please pray that I wouldn’t make the World Race about my story. . . I love a good story but I am used to making it about me. Pray that I would simply be a subplot in God’s greater story for my life.
– God shows up the next day.
He and his fellow team leaders are walking about Bucharest, Romania when they pass by an elderly woman sitting on the street. Nathan gets the sense that he’s suppose to pray with her and a few moments later, he shares this impression with the group:
We all agree to go back. I go ahead of the group and kneel down to talk to her. I start by saying, “this might be weird and I doubt that you understand everything I am saying, but I am going to pray for you right now.”
Within the first two sentences of me talking to this woman, whose name is Mariana, she began to cry. I don’t think she understood all of what I was telling her but she understood that eight random strangers loved her because God loved her. . .
We prayed healing over her . . . heard her story and then we told her what God thought of her. . .
