During one of our last few days in Israel, we got to travel around and explore the city of Caperneum, which is also on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, the area where Jesus preached the Beatitudes, the place where Jesus fed the five thousand, and Tiberius, which is where part of the Jordan River is located.
It was a day of restoration for me because I was baptized in the Jordan river, where Jesus was baptized! (Well, maybe not the exact spot where Jesus was baptized but the same river, nonetheless.)
God has changed my heart so much on the Race, and he has opened my eyes to life that I never really new existed. And because I have changed so much I wanted to be baptized again, as a marking point to remember the transformation that God has done in me.
There are many of us who grew up in a church community and accepted at a young age that we are saved from eternal death by believing in faith that Jesus Christ is our Savior. And I rejoice and Praise God that I was raised with the education of such truth. However, it is common also to not understand what that means and to see a full transformation of the heart and mind at the time that decision to accept Christ is made. And this has been my experience. I knew that Christ was the only way, and that God loves me so much that he sent his only Son to die so that I could live. And I chose life! Yet, I didn’t understand it all at first.
There are certain moments in my life that I can remember God really becoming illuminated through a new understanding of His words in scripture and through new commitments and relationships and personal sacrifices that I have made so that I could attain a relationship and understanding of God that was beyond what I recognized at that time. And I think the greatest of those moments occurred throughout college. Emerging from the depths of the darkness of unknowing to the blinding and life-giving brightness of a new light of understanding. Realizing the fullness of what it means to be saved by grace (Eph 2: 1-10): to be completely lost, and dead in sin. Without a hope. Without a chance to ever live. And then for someone to come and surrender themselves, to submit to the very beings that were created by his own hands, and suffer death. All so that I could have a hope, so I could live and be with Him……FOR-EV-ER! That grace has set me free, and opened my eyes to a whole new life that is set before me. 
So as I entered the icy cold waters of the Jordan, I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at my friends and prepared to be immersed into the waters that were about to wash over me. And then I peacefully walked up to stand by my teammate and brother, David and smiled a big grin as I awaited his words and the rushing of the cold water over my body.
As just as Christ, emerged from the depths of the waters, I emerged knowing that the “old me” had been buried, and the new me was alive and free. Free to live in the fullness of life and joy that Jesus promised us before he was crucified.
That is what my life has been about lately, learning how to live in the Freedom of Christ. To not stay imprisoned by the lack of knowledge and understanding that lies in the past, but to run forth into the fullness of joy that awaits today. And with that that can come some serious pain and grieving. And it has. On the race, I have experienced some of greatest senses of loss that I have ever known, but God has replaced it with his love and the fruit that comes from truly believing with all of your being that he is enough!
I know we just left Israel, but I can’t wait to go back.
