soccer – OneHeart2Worlds

Uganda: Loving Simply and Simply Loving

Did you know that missions trips have a lot in common with surprise birthday parties?

Yeah, me neither. Until now.

Think about it. Sometimes the events of the day catch you totally off-guard, sometimes you experience anxiety, excitement, and fear all at the same time, sometimes you stay up until the wee hours of the night enjoying great conversations with great friends, and sometimes you just can’t wait for everyone to leave so you can be alone to sleep.

Oh, and sometimes there’s cake.

I just got back from my trip to Uganda, and it was totally like a surprise birthday party—full of excitement, exhaustion, and every other emotion you can possibly imagine. Continue reading “Uganda: Loving Simply and Simply Loving”

You Are a Warrior, Are You Not?

This week I learned something new about myself.

I hate doing things that I am not good at doing.

For example: Don’t ask me to sing in a public place. I will run away. I am not a great singer, so singing in public, in front of tons of people, would be… mortifying. (There would also be a chance that those people would walk away with significant hearing loss.) Also, don’t ask me to play golf. I’ll leave that to my Dad and my little brother, Brian. Let’s just say that the only time I tried to play golf was with my little brothers’ golf clubs when I was 16. (Take note, I’m left handed and my little brother is not. That should tell you something…)

But ask me to climb a tree, sketch a picture, or make french toast, and I will do it gladly.

So this week, I have been faced with several different challenges that have made me feel really inadequate, weak, and uncomfortable. Let me lay it out for you.

Firstly: My new friend Petunia and I had an amazing breakthrough with an idea for a ministry opportunity. We want to work with girls ages 13-20 in the Kayamandi Township, mentoring them and empowering them through small group discussions, discipleship, bible teachings, life skills, and spoken word lessons. We want these girls to see themselves the way God sees them, as precious and priceless young women who are loved and cherished. We want them to take ownership of their testimonies so that they can heal from their past hurts and share their stories with the world through writing and spoken word. This is all very exciting. Except for the fact that these girls don’t speak very good English, nor do they speak very good Afrikaans. They speak Xhosa. I have no idea how to speak Xhosa. I am going to have to learn a completely new language (with click sounds) completely from scratch.

The thought of not being able to communicate with these girls is frustrating. So I have two options. I can sit and pout about it, and work in a different location, or I can “woman up” and learn this new language—clicks and all. Yes, I am incredibly weak in this area, and yes, I will probably look and sound like a fool when I first start learning. In spite of that, I know the rewards will be worth all the embarrassment and struggles. When I was preparing to come back to South Africa this past December, I prayed that God would keep me humble and dependent on Him. Looking at where I am now, it’s obvious that He’s answering my prayer. (Disclaimer: be careful what you pray for.)

Secondly: I am playing a new position on my soccer team. Now, this isn’t the end of the world. Thanks to my Dad, I’ve been playing soccer since I was 4 years old, so I have a solid understanding of the game and it’s tactics. However, I have been playing in the same position on the field for the past 13 years. Center back. This season, I am playing in a new position that I haven’t played in since I was 11 years old. This is intimidating, especially at this level of play. This week at soccer practice, I felt really dumb. I felt like I had no idea what the heck I was doing, and it was so frustrating. I couldn’t execute anything properly, so my confidence pretty much disintegrated into thin air. God and I had a nice little chat about it on the car ride home. (And by “nice little chat,” I actually mean that I had an emotional breakdown and threw a temper tantrum in the car because I was completely humiliated.)

I am an incredibly competitive individual. If you doubt this, just ask my parents—they’ve experienced my wrath during Family Game Night’s. So, when I fail and don’t perform as well as I want to, I get discouraged and depressed. I do not like to be perceived as weak. I think it’s a pride thing (that I need to get over). But there’s an upside to this story: When I spoke to my coach about it after practice, he responded to all of my complaining with, “You are a warrior, are you not?”

Holy Bananas. I almost felt over. Nothing pierces the heart more than having the truth you’ve been preaching to yourself for years being preached back in your face during a time of doubt and struggle. His words couldn’t have been more perfect (or more convicting). My coach was right, I am a warrior, and I love a challenge. Where did my strength go? Where did my boldness go? What happened to my confidence? It only took a few difficult challenges to forget who I am, and that’s unacceptable. So what if I look stupid or sound stupid for the next few weeks or even the next few months? If I practice and learn, then I will get better and grow. It’s that simple. I will reap what I sow.

Last night, God reminded me of 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: “Each time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Instead of being scared of feeling weak or “not good enough,” I am going to work on giving my all in everything I do. I realized that if I do my best and offer my best, no matter how flawed it may be, it is enough. I am constantly having to remind myself that God doesn’t love me because of my soccer skills, my writing skills, or my ability to understand Afrikaans. He loves me because I am His. He loves me because He chooses to freely and unconditionally love me every single day, and honestly, that’s a hard thing for me to grasp. But each day, as the Lord walks with me on this faith journey, I discover a little more about Who He is and about what it means to be His daughter. And as each adventure and challenge unfolds before me, I am drawn one step closer into His loving and merciful arms.

In and Out of Season

As an athlete, nothing feels more satisfying than sore and achy muscles after a tough workout—especially after leg day. You know that you’ve worked hard when you can’t sit down on the toilet without wincing or falling over in pain. (Sorry for the potentially disturbing visual.)

When I head back to South Africa, my soccer season will begin and I am sooooo excited to get back onto the field with my teammates. Funny story though, my season literally begins the weekend I arrive. With that being said, I needed to get my butt whipped into shape… like several months ago. But hey, better late than never, right?

These past few weeks have been full of tight glutes, smelly gym clothes, and awkward sports bra tan lines. My days have been filled with interval sprints, squat racks, and plyometrics – and let’s not forget about the actual soccer part. Cone drills and cruyff cuts have invaded and taken over my dreams at night, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The coolest part about my training regimen is that God shows up and joins me every time I step into the weight room or out on the field. I’ll be in the middle of doing interval sprints and then BAM, “Oh hey God, what are you doing here?” It amazes me that He can use strength and conditioning workouts to teach me valuable and spiritual life-lessons. I never knew that interval sprints could be so insightful (and painful, but mostly insightful). It’s one of the things that I absolutely love about God. He really does have His hand in everything, and He can use anything to teach us, shape us, and grow us outside of our comfort zones. Whether it’s a sport, a job, a chore, or a family member. He’s super creative that way.

So, while my legs were shaking and my pulse was racing, God was busy teaching and convicting. He taught me two things that I’d love to share with you guys:

Firstly… God asked me why I don’t exercise my spiritual muscles the way I exercise my physical ones? Eventually, I am going to get old and wrinkly, and at about 80 years old, I highly doubt that I will be worried about having a “bikini body.” In fact, I think my biggest concern will be having a body that works well enough to get me to the refrigerator and then back to the couch. So why am I spending so much time investing in what is “temporary” instead of investing in what is “eternal?” Boom. Heart check. When I meet God face to face, I want Him to know me. I want Him to call me by my nicknames, and I want to be able to joke with Him about all of those awkward and glorious moments when we cried and sang and laughed together. He’s not going to care about how fast I could run or how flat my abs were. So, I realized in that moment, that it’s all about balance. I need to keep my body (my temple) holy, pure, and in tip-top shape… but I also need to keep my prayer life and my relationship with the Lord in tip-top shape as well. Plus a sobering thought: He gave me this body, so He can always take it away!

Secondly… God reminded me that I need to see this pre-season training and this “waiting” period (before I fly out to South Africa) as a HUGE blessing. Let me be honest… I am one of the most impatient people in the universe. No, really. It’s terrible. So when God told me to wait a few more months before returning to the mission field, you can assume that I wasn’t too “keen.” In other words, I was a tad bit pissed off. But as always, God had a reason. He knew that I would need to prepare my body, my heart, my spirit, and my mind for the challenges and adventures that I would be facing in the future. He knew that I would need the three days a week on the track and the two days a week in the weight room to get my body into the best shape possible, so that I would be able to glorify Him to the best of my ability on the soccer field. He knew that there would be so much more for me to learn before I go—that there would be more money for me to raise, more people for me to meet with, more blogs for me to write, and more time for me to spend with my family. I wanted to rush out, but God needed me to stay. So this specific season is meant to prepare me and to glorify Him — whether that’s through my fitness training, my writing, my prayer and worshiping, my relationship building, or my Netflix watching. My only responsibility is to make the most of this time while I have it, because once it’s gone, I can’t get it back.

So a word of advice… wherever you are in life, no matter how boring or how stressful this season may seem, make the most of it. Embrace it for all that it has to offer, and trust that God has you exactly where you are for a reason and a purpose. It may not make sense now, but I can promise you that when you look back days, months, or years later… everything will make sense. He has all of our days laid out before Him, so He can see things that we can’t see yet. I know it’s hard, because I struggle with it daily, but try to find comfort in that!

“So let us not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

– Galatians 6:9

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.”

– Romans 5:3-5