It was incredible. On the way to the house, we stopped at a Walmart for a scavenger hunt! It was pretty intense with 20 very competitive athletes... After 45 minutes, sprinting through the store, taking pictures with strangers, my group won!! It was a great way to start the weekend.
Once we got to the house we had a game night. We played some get-to-know-you games and then finished with a big game of bunko.
The next morning we had a group session talking about having a vision for our lives. The three main aspects of having a vision is: know yourself, know your vision, know your strategy.
Know yourself:
- Figuring out your strengths, weaknesses, and passions
- Learn God's truths about yourself and actually believing it!
- The more we know who God is, the more we know ourselves
Knowing your vision:
- Vision in life creates purpose
- When we have a vision, we are given passion, motivation, direction, and purpose
- Our vision is an extension of HIS vision. Therefore, our vision should align with restoration and redemption!
Knowing your strategy:
- You have to take steps and do the knocking to see what doors open
- As you begin pursuing your vision, God will begin to reveal your steps
- God may reveal this through talking to mentors and people in positions of where you are striving to be
- Pray bold prayers
Visions are born in the soul of a man/woman who is consumed by the tension between what is and what should be!! This is so cool! God is growing us up to our ultimate vision!! We just have to keep acting on our convictions and trust that God will reveal our roles as we go!
Wow, this is exactly what I needed to hear. I have been stressing so much on what I should be pursuing for my future once I graduate college. I feel like I have too many interests and am passionate about so many things, so which route do I take? My ultimate passion is the Kingdom of God. But where do I go from there? So this conversation gave me the peace to keep on keeping on! I know that through Christ, life has meaning! And I trust that as I keep acting on my convictions, that He will begin to reveal my steps and uncover my personal vision.
Proverbs 3 was one of the first words of scripture I read in my life and once again it has impacted me brilliantly over the last few days. If you are reading this blog post, READ THAT CHAPTER RIGHT NOW!! There are two verses that I mainly want to harp on.
Proverbs 3:27-28
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back tomorrow and I'll give it to you" - when you already have it with you.
What do you have to offer your neighbor? What has God convicted you as a need in the world? Are you using what God is gifting you with? Jessie (my roommate) and I have been having so many conversations about our role on this team, in this host family and small town, and even in our specific friendship. And it has led us to act on so many convictions, like sleeping over at a teammates house who was home alone, getting to know this awesome store owner in down town Waxhaw (the town we live in), and being intentional in spending time with girls on the team! It has been awesome!! And in doing this, it seems like God is revealing our role for this summer! We have extra time aside from soccer practice, we have a car, we already have each other for support, and we both are good at making friends. We have the power to act and the gifts to put to use. So we are not going to withhold this or put it off for another time when we are less tired from soccer or when we have more incentive for us. Let's listen to scripture RIGHT NOW and just DO.
God is so good!!
Read Proverbs 3. Trust God. Act on a conviction today. Discover your vision!
Welp, this was supposed to be a blog post about my retreat but I ended up getting a little carried away :)
Long story short, the retreat was epic. We closed the weekend with discussing the idea that we just had a mountain top experience. Everyone was so vulnerable and we grew closer to each other and closer to the Lord. The typical phrase that is usually used after an experience like this is "Now it's time to get back to the real world". But, what we experienced WAS real life. That is how God created real community to be. So the question really is, how are we going to bring the real world into this busy, corrupted world.
Then I started thinking about what we were going back to in Charlotte... It's amazing! So really, this weekend we just had was a mountaintop experience on top of another mountain top experience.
Thank you Lord.
Love,
Natalie
No comments:
Post a Comment