Training Camp Research Paper
I am going to try my best to put into words all that God has done in the past 10 days of my life without spoiling it for future racers because I believe there is such beauty in coming in with zero expectations.
I knew going into this that training camp was supposed to be hard, I'd read a million blogs, most saying these 10 days are the hardest part of the entire journey but nothing prepared me for what was about to unfold. I assumed meeting 53 strangers, sleeping in tents, porta-potties, bucket showers and strange food would be what stretched and broke me the most. Oh how I was wrong.
Feeling pretty solid in my faith, I arrived in Gainesville, Georgia and was completely shattered. He turned my view of Him upside down and totally revitalized …show more content…
my faith. He revealed things to me about myself that I didn't even know were there. It's honestly crazy how much of the Lord I was missing out on and how unaware of it I was. One thing I learned this past week is how consumed we are with ourselves and the world around us and how we need to create space in order for God to work in us, and I hadn't been doing that. For me, it required stripping away the comfort of friends and familiarity in order for Him to reveal what being a child of God truly looked like. As He broke down every wall around my heart, never have I felt the love of the Lord so personally and intimately. I walked away from training camp a new creation. He showed me how to walk in boldness and in the fullness of what it is to be a follower of Christ, and man I am so thankful that our God cares about us so much that He delights in leaning down and breaking us apart in order to form a brand new creation so much more brilliant than before.
At training camp, God taught me what real community and family looks like.
Every single one of my teammates radiates the light of Christ and has challenged me to seek and press into the Lord more than ever before. There was so much life and encouragement spoken over me by my brothers and sisters, and every conversation was held with such intention and passion fueled by the Lord it caused me to rethink everything. Training camp also forced me to be vulnerable. Vulnerable in an intense new way, vulnerable to complete strangers. If you had told me I was going to meet 50 complete strangers and share my whole heart with them I would have laughed in your face. I'm already a shy person so that was miles outside my comfort zone. People kept telling me how beautiful vulnerability can be but all I could think was ' Maybe I'll open up once I actually get to know them'. But when I set my stubbornness and fear aside, and chose to rely on the Lord and the spirit of boldness that He gives us, man was I astonished. God doesn't just want us to sit alone in all our brokenness. He wants us to be real with each other and form powerful relationships that in turn will help further His kingdom. I can confidently say that as I walk away from training camp I now have 53 new family members and have formed more in depth relationships in this past week than I have over many
years.
So while it was extremely difficult and unpleasant having to eat bizarre foods with bare hands,use porta-potties that were definitely too full for proper use and be constantly sweating, smelling and looking disgusting, those challenges became opportunities to display the spirit of God. It's in those moments that we have the choice of pressing on and covering ourselves with His joy and His strength, or giving up because we're exhausted or don't feel like doing something that isn't for our own personal gain. I write this blog post not to applaud myself for making it through training camp or to suggest I'm some crazy tough christian, but to show the glory of God's power in us because there is no way I could've ever gotten through the past 10 days without His supernatural strength.
All in all, training camp was so much more than the intense physical training and lack of amenities, it was a beautiful journey of breaking chains, abandonment and stepping into all that God has for us, and this is only the beginning.
" Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come" 2 Corinthians 5:17
I knew going into this that training camp was supposed to be hard, I'd read a million blogs, most saying these 10 days are the hardest part of the entire journey but nothing prepared me for what was about to unfold. I assumed meeting 53 strangers, sleeping in tents, porta-potties, bucket showers and strange food would be what stretched and broke me the most. Oh how I was wrong.
Feeling pretty solid in my faith, I arrived in Gainesville, Georgia and was completely shattered. He turned my view of Him upside down and totally revitalized …show more content…
my faith. He revealed things to me about myself that I didn't even know were there. It's honestly crazy how much of the Lord I was missing out on and how unaware of it I was. One thing I learned this past week is how consumed we are with ourselves and the world around us and how we need to create space in order for God to work in us, and I hadn't been doing that. For me, it required stripping away the comfort of friends and familiarity in order for Him to reveal what being a child of God truly looked like. As He broke down every wall around my heart, never have I felt the love of the Lord so personally and intimately. I walked away from training camp a new creation. He showed me how to walk in boldness and in the fullness of what it is to be a follower of Christ, and man I am so thankful that our God cares about us so much that He delights in leaning down and breaking us apart in order to form a brand new creation so much more brilliant than before.
At training camp, God taught me what real community and family looks like.
Every single one of my teammates radiates the light of Christ and has challenged me to seek and press into the Lord more than ever before. There was so much life and encouragement spoken over me by my brothers and sisters, and every conversation was held with such intention and passion fueled by the Lord it caused me to rethink everything. Training camp also forced me to be vulnerable. Vulnerable in an intense new way, vulnerable to complete strangers. If you had told me I was going to meet 50 complete strangers and share my whole heart with them I would have laughed in your face. I'm already a shy person so that was miles outside my comfort zone. People kept telling me how beautiful vulnerability can be but all I could think was ' Maybe I'll open up once I actually get to know them'. But when I set my stubbornness and fear aside, and chose to rely on the Lord and the spirit of boldness that He gives us, man was I astonished. God doesn't just want us to sit alone in all our brokenness. He wants us to be real with each other and form powerful relationships that in turn will help further His kingdom. I can confidently say that as I walk away from training camp I now have 53 new family members and have formed more in depth relationships in this past week than I have over many
years.
So while it was extremely difficult and unpleasant having to eat bizarre foods with bare hands,use porta-potties that were definitely too full for proper use and be constantly sweating, smelling and looking disgusting, those challenges became opportunities to display the spirit of God. It's in those moments that we have the choice of pressing on and covering ourselves with His joy and His strength, or giving up because we're exhausted or don't feel like doing something that isn't for our own personal gain. I write this blog post not to applaud myself for making it through training camp or to suggest I'm some crazy tough christian, but to show the glory of God's power in us because there is no way I could've ever gotten through the past 10 days without His supernatural strength.
All in all, training camp was so much more than the intense physical training and lack of amenities, it was a beautiful journey of breaking chains, abandonment and stepping into all that God has for us, and this is only the beginning.
" Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come" 2 Corinthians 5:17