establish

8/5/2019. A year ago to this day I was sitting on the back porch of my home in Youngstown, Ohio. I was praying and fasting in preparation for training camp that was just days away. I remember having a deep love for N-squad who, at that time, were a group of strangers. I set out to spend an entire day seeking the Lords face on behalf of our squad, that He would have his way in our 10 days of training. During my time of prayer the lord gave me a word and a verse. 

establish 

1 Thessalonians 3: 12-13 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he establish your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father.

I felt the Lord was saying that training camp would be a time where He establishes our squad. Not only that, but that this year would be a season of establishment for the rest of our lives. I started praying into the word establish and here’s what He led me to. 

Establish: to make stable, place firmly, set fast, fix, to fulfill, to confirm, to raise up, to set up, to build, to prepare, to be ready, to raise up, to make powerful. 

1 Peter 5:10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

Proverbs 15:9 In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. 

These verses that I read a year ago today is a direct reflection of what God has done over the last 10 months and especially so far this month. For those of you who may not know, I am in my last month on the race. And for our last month our squad is walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. This is a famous pilgrimage that gives us the opportunity to walk nearly 370 miles from one end of Spain to the next. Each day is a new landscape, a new journey, a new piece of time to reflect on this last year and prepare for the transition home. At the beginning of the month the Lord told me that while planning is necessary and good for a journey like this, He wanted me to hold my plans loosely. He wanted me to allow Him to establish each and every one of my steps, despite my plans. And so that is a prayer of me and Sara’s every morning: “Lord, establish our steps.” 

The same is true for my race. I went into this year with plans, with expectations of how I thought things would go. And while those expectations weren’t entirely met the way I originally planned, God’s establishment of each of my steps is the reason I can say I’m leaving this year a changed person. 

Something else I’ve learned within establishment is that the Kingdoms definition of ‘established’ is vastly different from the world’s definition. The world might say your established when you’ve landed the right job, right house, right spouse. Being established might mean you’ve gained some sort of social status or have climbed the ladder of success. Establishment to the world is when your physical state is unmoving and unchanging. But in the kingdom of God you can be walking to a different town every day, you can be flying to a different country each month, your environments can be ever changing and ever moving. You might be jobless with only pennies in your pocket. Yet somehow, you’re established. Your foundation is never changing, it’s never moved. Because being established has nothing to do with the physical things you have, it has everything to do with whether or not your life is built upon the Rock. The solid and firm foundation, Jesus Christ. That is what propels me forward, unmoving, into an ever changing environment. What a beautiful paradox. 

On August 5th of last year God spoke the word establish over N-squad. And here I am a year later walking down a cobblestone street in a village along the coast of Spain, more established now then I ever have been before. This has been a year where He has made stable, placed firmly, set fast, confirmed, raised up, set up, built, prepared, and made powerful the family of N-squad. We are ready to enter into the states confident that God has established our steps and has used this year to lay a foundation for the rest of our lives.