Growing up, my brother was one of my best friends….and still is. He was and always has been one of my biggest supporters. I’ve looked up to him for a lot of things. He helped me with homework. Played catch with me. Came to my sporting events. Pushed me to go further. He was at times probably pretty annoyed with me. Like when his friends came over for picnics in the summer and I’d hang out with them too. But, he loved me through it and let me join.
The times that I really looked up to Keith, was every time he came home from church camp. He’d share the love of Jesus that he’d learned about that week—first through a leather made project and/or a gimp key chain that he had created for me. Second, through teaching me songs he learned.
One of the first songs I learned was called Sanctuary. (Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary. Pure and holy. Tried and true. With Thanksgiving, I’ll be a living. Sanctuary. For You.) It was and still is an anthem song for my life. Along with Sanctuary, he also taught me: Lord I Lift Your Name on High (with motions of course!), Humble Thyself, As The Deer, Take My Life-Holiness, among others.
We would sing these songs for hours upon hours the weeks following camp and throughout the year, on car rides, and especially around my Grandma. She loved to hear us singing together. We even performed at my Great Aunt’s church one Sunday evening. (If I was home right now, I’d try to find the recording and find a way to put it on here. We were young then!). Keith really instilled the love of Jesus in my life and I’m eternally grateful. His little sister wanted to follow in his footsteps 🙂
As I continued to grow up, I didn’t have many guy friends. There was one kid, Brandon, who lived on my block and we played together after school and in the summers ALL THE TIME! But then he moved. I was shy, and most of my friends were girls.
In college, I started forming some friendships with guys, but I still didn’t feel like I had many close guy friends.
Last year on the race, God started redeeming that aspect of my life. At training camp, I started to really learn to trust the 13 guys and 1 male SQL who I would spend the next 11 months with. I think the deal was sealed when they washed the ladies’ feet—something not asked of them, but they wanted to show us how valuable we were to them.
Over the year, I became closer with some more than others—and some who I still keep in contact with. But, these guys were BROTHERS who I could trust, depend on, and know that they were safe spaces. I’m so privileged to have them in my life!
God, also seems to have a sense of humor. I keep in contact with a lot of people from ministry sites from the race—a mixture of women and men, but I have gained a lot of brothers. So, I just wanted to feature some of theses godly men who have been an important part of encouraging me, pushing me, sharpening me, and walking this faith journey with me. I couldn’t imagine life without them. 🙂
