Well, six months in, almost to the day, where do I even begin? I guess the start is a really good place. When I think back to January, had you met me then, you’d have found a stupendously excited guy crazy for God, but a brash and well immature kid. Over the last six months, there’s been quite a few ups and downs but ultimately I find myself in a good space with God, a place where I never thought I’d get to, at least not this soon. There is still a heap of growing to do, I’m a lifelong learner of the Word at the end of the day, but how did I get here?

This snowball got started by a change in perspective. We had an awesome trip to Mooikrans farm at the start of the year where I was confronted with a seemingly impossible mountain in front of me. You may ask why? Well, because I thought everything was about me. I wanted control over my life and my decisions and it was all about Caleb, all the attention and all the blessings must come to Caleb. It took about a month and a half of that to dwindle to a simmer to an open heart. To stop worrying about me and getting my way and wanting to constantly be in control. Enter the answer to all of my perspective changes, a true blessing from God, a brother that not through words but actions would inspire me to do good and better works. This relationship would cause me to grow, I was confronted with all I knew in my old ways. The light was shed on these things and it very quickly caused me to come before the Lord about them. The Lord melted these things away from me one by one, am I perfect in them every day? No. I still fail and stumble from time to time but I seek the Lord, seeking the Holy Spirit to help me get better every day! 

I had to have my faith far outstretched to get a place to stay, I had to have my faith far outstretched on trips, and I had to have faith just coming here and trusting the Lord. Giving God my yes is the best thing I could’ve ever done. Throughout this time my perspective regarding relationships, health and physical fitness, purpose, and leadership have all been shifted. With relationships, it is understanding the very concept I had to get over, myself. Relationships are about giving and loving, sowing into people’s lives, and being less concerned about receiving. All your needs are met by the Holy Spirit and if you feel like you are not getting what you ‘need’ out of a relationship, then it’s evident that your relationship with God is out of whack. To grow in your relationship with others means to grow in your relationship with God. I had a skewed idea about what health and physical fitness looked like before coming to iXchange. It was all about performance and nothing about relationships. Everything was about self-will and self-determination, is there anything wrong with determination? No, but what’s the heart behind your determination? I had to shift from being this fitness-driven, physique-driven person to changing where I fixed my eyes, and that was onto God. Realizing that health and fitness is about submitting to God. He wants us to live long and prosperous lives, what does that entail? Having to die to self. Some are better with their fitness, some are better with what they eat, but everyone has to do things they don’t want to. God helps us through this and walks alongside us whilst we seek Him for help to get rid of old habits so that we can live long lives to do God’s work on the earth.

Living longer, means managing ourselves in our leadership. Leadership is not about being a commander but being a servant. In your own lives that means making decisions for God at every choice we have to make. Even in the small things like making your bed in the morning or whether you are going to leave a cup in the kitchen or wash it immediately. These are all indications of how we handle the big stuff, so I have learned to be a good steward of the little before I can get to the big stuff.

In my time at iXchange, I have encountered God and His love. Being blessed with a place to stay, answered prayer for needs, His presence, and all the monuments that I have built to remember God’s goodness. These God encounters changed me forever. I have seen so much growth in my life, growth that is evident to the people I love around me, all of my struggles God pulled me through and washed me clean and pure in the blood and His word. 

My journey so far has been fruitful, but there is much, much more to come!