Here I am in El Tunco, El Salvador in month 10 of the World Race. It turns out that we are staying in the same tourist town where we had debrief, just around the corner from our hostel, for the entire month. I am very excited about this – it is beautiful, a 5 minute walk from the beach, full of friendly people and a wonderful host with a ministry I am excited to serve with.
When we arrived on Friday last week our host, Andrea, gave us each a bible verse to reflect on and encourage us. The verse that I was given was Psalm 27:4
One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
We all went around the circle sharing the significance of the verse to our own lives, and I was so excited to share with my team what the Lord put on my heart. As I have shared in previous blogs, something that I have been continually learning on this journey; is that it is not about my performance – what I am doing and how well I do it. The journey of following the Lord is so much more than what I can do for Him, but who I become and who I allow Him to transform me into.
I realized that what the Lord wants first and foremost from me is my heart, for me to know who He is, how much He loves me and what He wants to share with me. This piece of scripture reminds me that the one thing I should desire above all else is to know the Lord, to spend time with Him and to have a deep intimate relationship with Him.
It also struck me that it says, “And to inquire in His temple”, the NIV translation says “And to seek Him in His temple”. In the Bible it says that we are His temple, our very bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit. So I should be seeking to display the Lord through my body, through everything I do and say. I can only reflect the Father if I know the Father…
The analogy that came to my mind was that of a cake…my life is the cake. Everything that I do is the icing and the decoration on the outside, but the cake is my soul the essence of who I am. The outside can look delicious and attractive, but the truth is in the taste…if the cake is burnt or underdone, no matter how beautiful it looks on the outside it can’t be disguised or hidden when you actually try it. The same is true of my life…I can be involved in serving the Lord, I can involve myself in outreach and mission work, singing on the worship team, doing children’s church…all the things. But if my heart is not in the right place, if I am not first seeking the Lord – it means nothing.
In Matthew, Jesus says “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness”. (Matthew 25:27)
I want this Scripture to be the purpose of my life, before I do anything I first and foremost want to know the Lord. One of my squad leaders, friend’s and fellow South African, Lene, said something that struck me a few months ago and I want the truth of the simplicity of it to settle in the depths of my soul
“Jesus be my coffee before my coffee”.
It is interesting that I received this Scripture and am reflecting on this in the midst of preparing for the next season of my life after the World Race. It is easy to become consumed and anxious with worrying about what lies ahead – I struggle daily in all honesty. I want to have a plan, I want to know exactly what is next for me and what I should be doing. But the Lord reminds me that I need to make who He is the focus of my life. I want to honour the Lord in all I do, and I will walk through the doors that He opens for me when He opens them.
I have lived my life for long enough trying to do things my own way, and even though the Lord has redeemed all the times that I have walked out His will for my life – I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to have the faith of the first disciples and the followers of the Way in the first century church, who would be prepared to risk everything, share everything, give everything to follow Jesus and do what He commanded them.
This is the purpose of my life.
