Well, I have been in Nicaragua for a few days and have been reflecting on the past week and the significant impact that training camp has had on me. It was a time of tremendous spiritual growth, and a great opportunity for our group to build stronger relationships. Days included team prayer and quiet times after waking up, training sessions in the morning, team building challenges in the afternoon, worship and teaching at night, and team debriefing right before bed. I believe I learned more life application in the areas of pursuing God and reaching out to others in this one week than in my entire four years of college.
The most revealing and applicable moment for me was during our guys session, where we discussed our role as men on the mission field and how we are to interact with others. We talked extensively on how to treat our fellow, female teammates and how to honor them as sisters in Christ. The most profound part of the session was the concept validation and how we desperately search for it in all situations. This is an area I have struggled with for a long time. I have continually looked for validation and approval in my actions, my talents, my position of power, and my relationships with others. Our discussion made me think of how I interact with others of the opposite sex and what I am sincerely seeking in my relationships with them. Do I act out of selfish motives in the littlest things I do or say? What am I truly seeking to gain when I interact and converse with women? If I am honest, it is either to get closer physically with them, or it is to make myself feel better. My validation and affirmation needs to be found not in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm.
My validation must come from Christ alone, because finding significance in Him is the only thing that matters. Freedom only comes when I am seeking to please Him and not seeking to please myself or this world. I have to keep going back to the scriptures and remember, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside false gods.”
So remember to give up the false idols in your own life, where you seek to find significance and self-worth. Instead, find validation in your relationship with Christ and “look to the Lord and his strength, seeking his face always.”
(Psalm 40:4)
(1 Chronicles 16:11)
