Monday, October 24, 2011

Don’t Let ‘Em Fool Ya…

…The REAL Training at EBC
a tribute to my sessionmates
at the USA Southern Territory School for Officer Training


It has come to my attention that there is something going on in our midst that we simply MUST be made aware of- though I warn you, the truth may shock you!  There is an agenda for us, Friends of Christ, that follows a completely different schedule (as if we need anything else on our plate), a rubrick that’s as many as 800 pages long and that involves BOTH individual and group work (and you know you’re gonna end up with the group of people that most drives you crazy, right?). Assignments include: 


·         How to not always get your own way – and be okay with it


·         Eating Humble Pie without spitting it out


·         Running the Race – hurdles, hills, potholes and all


·         Complaining vs. Counting your blessings


·         Spreading beauty, not misery


·         How to get along – even if the other person is the one with the problem (!)


And we’ve all been working on these assignments, because whether we recognize it or not this is the stuff that God is doing in us when we’re not looking. We’re already not the people we were when we arrived – Proverbs 27:17 says:
“You use steel to sharpen steel, and so one friend sharpens another”

Haha…you’d think that by now we’d all be razor sharp and ready to go!

You see, He’s been transforming us by the renewing of our minds, and as we worship Him in Chapel or in our Brigade Corps or in our prayer closet and we plead for Him to get rid of this nasty habit or that crummy behavior and grow in us the fruits of Holy Spirit, and make us more like Jesus, well,
He Does.
He refines us as we go through the details and interactions of our day to day living in community with one another. We learn grace, patience, gentleness, to prefer one another above ourselves, to love – especially when it hurts and a hundred other heavenly things just by choosing to live here and choosing to follow Jesus.  Maybe we didn’t learn it the first time, the second time or the 364th time the lesson came around, but we’re getting it.

So Friends of Christ, don’t let anyone fool you about what we’re supposed to be learning here…I know our paperwork indicates that Majors Hofer are in charge, but indeed it’s the Holy One who is directing and drawing us through this training experience so that we are made into the sort of officers (and disciples) that He needs out in the field, and even the whole wide world. “…joyous sacrifice, to be chosen, named and known as Friends of Christ…”

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