Being Bold: What I Learned From One of My Best Weeks Ever

I listened to a speaker recently who talked about having an “audacious faith” with audacious meaning bold, daring, fearless, etc. I’ve thought about this quite a bit lately, as I’m in a season of uncertainty & the unknown with graduating from college, getting married, etc.

When I was unexpectedly asked to lead a service trip just a while ago, I decided to have that audacious faith like that speaker talked about. I started asking God to make this trip the best trip the other students & I had ever experienced. I started to believe that it would be too.

Now a couple of things fell through with this trip… housing, advisors, etc. But eventually, it was sorted through, & my dad said he was going to serve as the advisor. He was a little nervous, I was a little nervous, but I continued to pray to God how I wanted it to be the best trip ever.

It turned out to be exactly that.

One of the best moments on the trip was on the last day when my dad looked down at me, & with tears in his eyes, said, “This is the most fun I’ve ever had… Thank you.” To be able to share that experience with my dad is something I’ll never forget. And I believe that God used this unexpected, yet beautiful week to show me what being bold & having that audacious faith looks like.

First off, I was reminded:

Life isn’t about being busy.

I talk about this a lot because it really is something that I struggle with, but on this trip, I was basically forced not to look at my planner. I didn’t have things to cross off each day. I didn’t have a long list of tasks to get completed. I was simply there to show up, do my best, & serve.

And as I spent almost every five minutes on that trip laughing until I almost peed my pants, I was reminded that this life is simply about loving & serving. It was so beautiful to take a step back & make time to capture the beauty of the people around me & those amazing moments. I think too often we get stuck in a mode of looking down & checking off. This trip reminded me that maybe I should look up & reach out for a change.

Another beautiful thing I was reminded of is this:

It’s about service, not status.

Sometimes it feels like it’s so necessary to capture & post every little blissful moment that happens in our lives… But on this trip, we could barely get reception where we were staying. And to have those moments where phones were put away & hands were out to serve instead was just really something special.

Too often the world tells us that it’s about how we look rather than who we are. It was so good to be reminded that this life is about service, not about our status. Jesus came to serve, not to be served… and I believe that is also true of us. We’re not here to make a name for ourselves, to scream into the abyss of other people also vying for attention. No… I believe that we are here to serve & love. It is in those moments of service that we are wildly blessed.

And lastly, I feel like God laid this right out on the table for me:

We’ve got to boldly believe.

I believe that we can speak things into existence. And when we believe that each experience can be a great one, even when there are some uncertainties, that greatness is always an option.

And when we believe in the people around us & boldly believe that we can see the best in them, we begin to do just that. We begin to bring that out into the open.

I saw it firsthand on this trip. I prayed for the best trip, & indeed it was. I prayed for the best experience for my dad, & indeed he told me so. I prayed that I would see the best in each person on the trip, & indeed I saw such greatness & beauty in each one.

So yes, this past week was one of the best weeks of my life… and it was a week that wasn’t even supposed to happen. But I boldly believe that God was there for each step, whether or not I knew where I was going.

May we be bold in each step we take, even if we feel a little unbalanced. For we know that our foundation is always solid, even when we feel like we are not.