Hey everybody! I am currently in Chiang Dao, Thailand sitting in a carwash that sells coffee. I am finally getting around to posting a little update. For the past month, my team and I have been living here at a children’s home called Fountain of Hope. We spent the first two weeks doing some labor on a farm that they own, and then transitioned over to teaching all the kids English. There are about 14 kids here that we live with, ranging from 5-17 years old. They are awesome, all the time, and I am loving what we are getting to do here. These past couple of weeks have a mixture of all kinds of things. It is surreal that my time on the race is coming to a close, as I feel like just the other day I told my parents I was going to apply. This has been a wild adventure that I will never forget, filled with so many memories and experiences that have forever changed my life. As I was spending some time with the Lord this morning and he began to show me something big about this season.
In John 2:13-22, there is a story about Jesus doing some crazy stuff. To sum it up, Jesus walks into the temple in Jerusalem and sees a market of people selling things and exchanging money. He gets so angry that the Scripture says he made a “whip of chords” and drove them out, overturning tables and spilling money all over the place. I have read this many times in my life, but this time God showed me something different. Normally, I take this passage as an instruction for the church to remain unstained from the pursuit of money and wealth, but notice the word “temple.” When I read a little farther I found that Christ compares his body to the temple. Similarly, this is what Paul tells us about in 1 Corinthians 3:16 when he asks the question “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
Alright here comes the correlation: Jesus had to wreck the temple in order to cleanse it and make it holy again. He had to mess up all that was going on inside, drive it out with a whip of chords, flip some tables and spill some valuables, so that the house of God could be restored to what it was supposed to be.
“For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corin 3:17)
I realized this morning that this is what God has done in my life over the past 7 months. Before I left for the race, I was all out of order. I had just given my life back to Jesus and there was still so much junk inside of me. The reason that Christ brought me on this journey was to wreck my temple. I had accumulated so many different worthless things—habits, struggles, tendencies, sins—that were hindering me from truly getting to know him. God decided it was time to flip over some tables in my heart so that I could walk in the new life that he has called me to. All of the things that I’ve seen and done, all of the people I’ve met, and all of the places I’ve been God has used to change my heart for the better. I am still a work in progress, but I just want to celebrate what he done so far. There has been some hard times over the past few months, but through it I have come to truly know who Jesus is…and I wouldn’t trade that for a million years the other way. I ask you, are you willing to let God wreck your temple so that you can know him deeper?
Also, thank you to everyone who has donated, but I am fully funded and no longer need more funds. I do not know how to disable the donate button so it is still active but if you feel led to give, consider another racer who still needs funds. Thank you again
