We're trucking right along through this 30 day blogging challenge and we've arrived at Day 12. We're almost halfway there, can you believe it?!! To be completely honest with you, I didn't know if I was going to be able to do this and someday's it is still quite difficult for me, but God just keeps revealing new and beautiful things that He is placing on my heart to share with you all so I'm going to continue to do so! I'll stop blabbing now so that we can get on with this post. Happy reading!!
On The World Race you select a specific route for the month which you decide you want to "launch" (head to the field to begin doing ministry). In other words I decided that I wanted to launch in October of 2018 and there were three different routes for the month of October. I felt God leading me to commit to Route 3 and so that is exactly what I did. The other individuals and myself who chose Route 3 as our ministry destinations make up a squad. We will be living together, doing ministry together, uplifting one another, and truly become a family over the course of these 11 months. There are 36 of us "racers" on my squad, plus 2 awesome alumni squad leaders, 2 incredible coaches (we get to think of them as pseudo parents for the year), and one absolutely, positively phenomenal squad mentor. Together we have the honor and privilege of making up P-Squad! You see each squad is assigned a letter of the alphabet, so in other words Route 1 for October is N-Squad, Route 2 is O-Squad, and the oh so lovely participants of Route 3 make up your beloved P-Squad! Is it making sense yet?..
Recently my fellow squad-mates and I were presented with a challenge by our 2 coaches. We were given the task to find PURPOSE in the "P" in P-Squad. We were all asked to choose a word that begins with the letter P that has meaning for each of us. A word that we will commit to diligently be pursuing for the entirety of The World Race. A word which we will boldly and unapologetically declare over our lives from our first day of month one until our final day of month 11. We were also asked to back up whatever word we chose with scripture that we felt the Lord laying on our heart that we could cling to anytime we thought about our word.
As soon as the challenge was presented to us I began thinking of all the different P words that I could select. I started making a list in my journal when all of a sudden I felt as if God was telling me to wait. I didn't understand what this meant, but I decided to trust Him. I put my pen down, closed my journal, and began to watch as different words began flooding in that other members of P-Squad had selected. They were all words that had been on my list, so I remember thinking "great, now what?" Another part of the challenge was that everyone had to come up with a DIFFERENT word, and once a word had been selected it was off the market.
I was confused as to why God was asking me to wait because I felt like all the "good" words were being taken. I was sitting in silence when all of a sudden it came to me. God placed a word on my mind and He just kept repeating it. "Painting." "Painting." "Painting."
At first I probably had a look of confusion on my face because I truly didn't think that this could be the "P" word He wanted me to declare over my life for a year and this couldn't have been the word that He was asking me to wait around for. I mean seriously... painting? What did that even mean?
I began pondering why God had placed this word on my heart when it hit me...
That's exactly what God sees me as; His masterpiece. My life is a work of art that the artist is steadily crafting. Even when I feel as though I've scribbled all over the canvas through the mistakes that I've made, He simply smiles and incorporates my "mess" to make the painting more beautiful than I could have possibly imagined.
He also laid the following on my heart:
Paintings tell a story. May my prayer over the next year be that my story will ultimately not reflect me, but rather the artist behind the painting. The One making both it, and ALL things possible. May I also continuously be praying for clarity in appreciating "paintings" that are different than mine; being able to find the vibrance, the passion, and the beauty that my Papa saw as He crafted each and every piece of art here on Earth. We are ALL His masterpiece, so may I never forget that!
Some of the scriptures He laid on my heart to go with this word are:
Ephesians 2:10- for we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
Psalm 139:14- I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Thanks for reading guys, love you!
-Meagan
