A Heartfelt Snippet

Hey Friends and Fam,

So as most of you know or maybe have seen on social media, I went to the World Race training camp a couple weeks ago in Gainesville, Georgia. I was gone for eleven days…and yes, I took cold bucket showers and ate crunchy, unsalted crickets (fyi, the salted version is better) Honestly, I have been shirking the idea of writing this post for almost two weeks now. I want my blogs to come from a place of authenticity and openness rather than obligation. Anyways, what you are about to read is the completely unobligated, heartfelt addition. I’m not going to share every single detail here but I will share my heart.

Training camp challenged me in a lot of areas, one of them being “kingdom living”. All too often, I wake up in the morning and I immediately think of all that I have to get done that day. I check my calendar. I check my phone and sometimes my email (if I’m feeling type A). There are a lot of days where I live my life checking boxes. At training camp, the Lord called me out of those boxes. If you know Jesus on a personal level, you know that life is so much more than the scheduled activities in front of you. In fact, sometimes Jesus calls you out of every single one of those activities and asks you to simply be, be with Him (Luke 10:38-42 (Mary and Martha Passage)). Other times, He calls you out of those activities and asks you to do something totally radical, unexpected and maybe uncomfortable (Luke 10:25-37 (Good Samaritan Passage)). But on the other side of your “YES”, on the other side of your random, God led handstand by the mailbox, stands a soul awaiting LIFE. I’m not kidding. Your obedience in doing something as strange as a handstand by a mailbox could transform a life. It has. God’s ways are galaxies beyond ours. In heaven, I believe we’ll get to see all of the “YES’s” unfold and come together as one perfect story. Until then, it looks like listening and obeying even when it makes little sense. Please pray that I can continue to say “YES” in obedience to the Lord’s call as I embark on the journey before me. 

Another thing that really hit home with me during training camp is that I’m loved. For years now I’ve been praying that God would show me His love and help me to love others. Even just two months ago, if you had asked me why I thought I was created, I would have told you that it was to serve and glorify the Lord. While this is true, He first and foremost created me to love me. I was born to be loved!! For the majority of my life I knew that God loved me but I had no idea that this was His reason for creating me. God loved the world (John 3:16) before any of us could do anything for Him. He loved me in my darkness (Romans 5:8), at my worst, when I had absolutely nothing to give. Imagine the worst person you can think of. Yeah, God loves that person too and created that person to experience His love. Everyone you meet is born to be loved!! God is love (1 John 4). It’s not about what you do. It’s not even about you trying to love yourself better. Self love is another lie that Satan likes to throw at us. “If you can just learn to love yourself a little better, you’ll be able to give more love to others. Focus on loving yourself.” We are incapable of love without God. Once we accept God and His love for us, that is what fills us and gives us life to give to others. There is so much peace in simply receiving and abiding in God’s love every day. 

And finally, thanks for reading this short, heartfelt snippet of a blog post! I am hoping to post weekly once I leave in January. Be sure to subscribe for regular updates. If you would like to know more about my training camp experience or the upcoming adventure, feel free to contact me. I’d love to get coffee and catch up. I greatly appreciate your prayers and support. 🙂

~Steph