Hey friends! LOL because my last blog was about a conviction to live in the moment in Jaco, and then I broke my phone and barely had it, and was forced to be in the moment wayyy more than I signed up for. God is funny. Like the funniest ever. Which makes sense because he created humor, like WHAT. Anyways, that’s something I’m really learning.
Exiting this season and entering the next one, I’d love to share some of the many, many things God taught me in Jaco. It was crazy. Every few days, God would bring up a new topic or a heart issue, get me through it, and then throw another one at me. Literally God taught me like 20 wild things in Jaco.
I’ll share 3 of them here. And I could easily write a long blog about all 3 of these things, but hopefully a few sentences each will be good.
Boundaries, roots, and love.
ALSO, shoutout to keys for the journey, because two of these words, roots and love, I received a prophetic key for and it was SO true.
Boundaries. The least fun one 🙂
Honestly, boundaries weren’t even really a part of my life until a few years ago, so I’m still learning a lot what mine are. And living with 45ish people will really show you some boundaries that you need if you don’t have them. Both with your own, and with honoring other people’s. For example, you can use my towel, I don’t care. But never use my roommate Cayce’s towel, or we’ll have a serious team meeting about it.
Boundaries 🙂
But for real, what I learned was, I don’t always have to give people what they want from me. Nothing is wrong with me for that. I have the right and authority to say no to things, and to be respected in that. And also to make sure I give my friends the same grace and respect in their boundaries.
Roots. This was a prophetic key given to me by another world racer not on my squad, who I barely know, which makes it even cooler. A few times, God spoke through my squad mates and our leaders about roots. What he taught me was, because of my past experiences there are lies that I believe about him, myself, and others. With these lies as roots, my view of life is distorted. So God was ripping up a lot of roots. A big one I kept running into was not believing people meant the things they said to me, or had the best intentions for me at heart. But in reality, I was actually encountering genuine love, and had a hard time believing it.
And finally, love. This was a prophetic key I got at launch right before we left for Costa Rica. And DANG. There are a lot of ways I encountered the love of Jesus in Jaco that were literally a first for me, especially through my brothers on the squad. Father hurt and relationship hurt is a real thing, and it’s crazy the lasting impact it can have even after forgiveness and redemption take place. To be really honest, it doesn’t make sense that a few men in my life could cause such a distrust of all men, but yeah it’s a real thing. And I didn’t know I still struggled with it as much as I do. I know in my mind the love of Jesus isn’t reflected by these hurts, but my heart doesn’t keep up.
So living with brothers who do beautifully reflect Jesus has been CONFUSING and weird, but also the most beautiful and redemptive thing ever. The best thing I can think to compare it to is when a dog is moved from an abusive household to a loving household, but is scared and confused by the people who want to love it because it’s never seen love like that before. So yeah Jesus has taught me a lot about what his love actually looks like, and has really let me see him in the people I’m around.
Jaco was amazing, God is amazing, and I’m so excited to step into the next. Thank you for your prayers, love, support, and taking the time to catch up!
Also, if you follow my blogs but don’t have me on Facebook, add me on there because there is more Jaco & world race things I’ve posted!
That’s so good, Ashley! Yesterday, I was talking with your mom & asking how you were doing! So good to hear from you-I enjoy reading your blog. Continued prayers to you as you grow, learn & explore all God has for you & bless others in the process.
Thanks for sharing what God has been teaching you.
From a few people in my life, I learned to distrust authority in general. That has not been fun for God to dig up and get rid of.
Our heart keeps memories. And when we’re young, our heart often puts up walls (and boundaries) to protect us. But those same walls often keep out people and prevent healing as we get older. Sometimes we realize those walls are there, but often times, we don’t. God wants us to invite Him in and allow other people to get past those walls, sometimes to break down those walls.
Rachel