silence in the woods.
We (and by we, I mean all of CGA) went on a four day adventure into the woods of Georgia and South Carolina this last week. Keep in mind, I have done camping like things, but I have never been on an official camping trip. They gave us some food, supplies to cook said food with, coffee, toilet paper, a tarp, some rope, and iodine tablets for our water. We crammed into a couple of vans and we were on our way into the middle of nowhere.
We spent a day and a half hiking. In the evenings we would make a fire to cook our food, but mostly to keep warm. I’ve decided that there are few things better than sitting around a fire with really cool people, having worship, playing games, and just laughing a whole lot. Each night I fell asleep staring up at the stars from the comfort of my hammock, which was glorious…and a bit chilly.
Tip for any of you who maybe want to try out the camping life — if you put some extra clothes at the bottom of your sleeping bag, it will help keep your feet warm through the chilly nights. And when you’re feet are warm, you are warm. 🙂
My camping group! Kevin, Hunter, Matt, myself, Aimee, LeAnn, Mikala, and Emily. Y’all are smart people, I think you can probably figure out what is being demonstrated here…
Our third day was a solo day. We spent 24 hours by ourselves, talking to nobody. We didn’t have our phones. No music. Nothing. It was just us and Jesus for a whole day. I’m an introvert, so I love me some good quality alone time. It’s how I get recharged. But I don’t do well with sitting in silence. I’m quick to fill the silence with any kind of noise I can get. But that wasn’t an option on this day. There was no escaping the silence. And y’all, it was beautiful. The whole day I sat in my hammock, right in the middle of His creation with no sound other than the birds in the trees and the river to my left, and I couldn’t get enough of Him. We talked a lot and He showed me a lot of really neat things.
During these four days we were encouraged to really pray about and think about what we want these next months to look like and be about. What do we want to get out of it? So I asked God to give me a vision or words or some kind of theme for this next season and this is what I got :
Pursuing Freedom and the verse 1 John 4:18 that says “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…”
On the World Race God brought up a lot of lies and insecurities I was believing and walking in, and I spent a lot of time working through those and really seeking the Lord and asking Him to allow me to see myself the way that He sees me. God doesn’t call us to walk in fear, but absolutely loves and gets so much joy when we are walking in Him, in His outrageous love.
Chapter 4 of 1 John talks a lot about abiding in Him and how He abides in us (which blows my mind!) and how when I’m seeking Jesus, I’m seeking freedom, true freedom. I realized how often I focus on myself and when I’m focused on myself these lies start creeping in, I give way to my weaknesses, and see all the ways in which I fall short. But when I am abiding in Him, when I’m fixing my eyes on Him, I see a whole lot of Him and his sovereignty, his power, his love, his grace, his strength and it leaves no room for these fears and lies to take up any space in my life. His perfect love casts out ALL fear!
“He must become greater, I must become less.” John 3:30
I’m so thankful for the time we had in the middle of the woods. I feel so refreshed and renewed and so ready for this next season of walking in freedom and going to deeper places with Jesus. Y’all, He is so good. I pray that you would taste and see and get big glimpses of His goodness and love. Don’t miss it.
Much love,
Kaci
It is really cool and wonderful living in the same city as some D squad peeps!
I am still going to be blogging regularly, but I am also going to be sending out a monthly newsletter that is more detailed and specific about what I am up to and what God is up to than what I would post on social media and this blog, so please comment with your email address or contact me at [email protected] if you would be interesting in receiving that. I would love to share this experience with you as best I can and by sending out a newsletter that allows me to do so in a more detailed and personal way.
