Born to be Free

So, I came home from Bible Quiz Nationals a week ago today. I would be in a very different place in my life had it not been for this opportunity - these Scriptures, these people, these prayers, this crazy life that God is letting me have the privilege of living. Quizzing really has changed my life.  Before then, I was quite deeply introverted.  It was hard getting to know new people.  I also felt like when I was around my friends, I was not being 100% myself - I just kind of adapted to each group. Then I started quizzing - determined that I would be myself, and found that it really wasn't that hard to make friends.  I know that probably sounds weird for a then 16-year-old, but it is what it is.  I've always been afraid of the way(s) others perceive me, and as I've grown older, I've been slowly learning not to care so much. I had memorized 303 verses for this season - really only 1/4 of the material and nothing compared to what others have done, but to me that

"I can see the Promised Land; Though there's pain within the plan, There is victory in the end; Your love is my battle cry. When my fears, like Jericho Build their walls around my soul, When my heart is overthrown -  Your love is my battle cry, The anthem for all my life. Every giant will fall, the mountains will move; Every chain of the past, You've broken in two. Over fear, over lies, we're singing the truth -  That nothing is impossible with You... There is hope within the fight, In the wars that rage inside; Though the shadows steal the light, Your love is my battle cry. Every giant will fall..." ( Rend Collective - "Every Giant Will Fall") You've heard his story a dozen times before - intrepid shepherd boy who faced the fear of the nation, a monstrous war-champion of the Philistines - alone. Maybe when we hear the stories again, we fail to