Hey everyone! Greetings from Nicaragua. Sorry for the lack of updates, just kinds tricky with the country hopping. Anyway, last week our squad had a parent vision trip, where all the parents got the chance to come with us on the field. But those of us who didn’t have parents coming went to the small town of Masatepe. It was an amazing week, filled with lots of hard work building a chicken coupe and water tower, worshipping around the camp fire and the local church, helping the locals practice their English, and morning devos. I loved every second of it. But there is one thing that sticks out that I want to talk about: Fleas!
2 nights into the trip, I started noticing what I thought were mosquito bites at different places in my body. At first it was just a few, and over the course of the race I’ve learned to deal pretty well with bugs (mosquitos, lice, spiders, scorpions, etc.), so I wasn’t too worried. I was sleeping in a hammock, though, and I figured I was getting eaten through night. The next night I woke up with many more bites, hundreds perhaps, all over my body. There would be trails on my legs and hips, even on my neck, but I still figured that the mosquitos were getting me through the hammock. They were so incredibly itchy. The next night, I set up a mosquito net, and to my surprise, I kept getting bites.
It wasn’t until I was working outside with Christian that I found out I was all wrong. He noticed a flea in my hat. I freaked out, it felt violating. I showered up and washed my clothes, astonished that it had been fleas this whole time. I figured at that point my week was about ruined, but I know that God works all things for good to those who love him, and so I asked him how this could turn into something better.
And then it hit me. The flea bites I had are representative of my life! Hang with me here. Of all the bug bites I have had, flea bites are the most itchy, especially when you have hundreds. You feel like when it starts itching, there is no other option but to itch them. You try to resist, but after a little while, you give in, especially if you are distracted with something else. And when you do give in, it feels amazing! It really does. For about 5 seconds. Then 20 seconds later, the itch comes on again, but so much worse than the first time, and it includes more bites. At this point, you are thrown into a cycle of trying to resist the urge and giving in. In the process, you make everything worse: your skin swells, the bites bleed, and scars form. But when you can get some anti itch cream, everything gets better! You can now avoid that very first urge to itch, or at least itch less, which allows the bites time to heal without being irritated or damaged. And once they do, the urge is no longer there, except coincidentally every now and then.
I think faith is the same way. We are covered with Spiritual flea bites- areas of sin. We are riddled with hundreds, some naturally more than others. And our flesh desires so much to itch, to give into sin. We try our best not to, but inevitably do anyway. As the process repeats again and again, the urges get stronger, and everything gets worse. We begin truly hurting ourselves, causing damage far worse than what was originally there. We are helpless, slaves to sin (Romans 7). We need anti itch cream. We need Jesus. He comes in and helps us keep from sinning, teaching us to do good instead. As time goes on, the bites, so to speak, are able to heal, and your urges to sin become less and less. That is sanctification. The key is that Christians are no better than anyone else on their own power, which is why Christians who try to do life own their own seem to fail so often. But Christiand who live by faith and invite Jesus into everything are tapped into something else that does all the work. All we have to do is apply it.
Also, I’m fully funded! Thank you all for the support and prayers you’ve offered for me. God is so faithful! Excited to continue making the most of it!
Peace and Blessings
