Practical Applications of Training for a Marathon

   Things you learn on the World Race:

   “Bounty Hunter” is part of the missionary’s job description. 

 

   Let me explain…

   This past month, I worked with Teen Challenge, a Christ-centered drug rehab center for Cambodian men.  As part of the TC program, the men spend twelve months at the center where they learn about Jesus and are transformed by His love.  It is legit!

  

   While at the center, our team conducted Bible Studies, taught English, worked on the farm, and invested in the men’s lives.  They were so hungry to learn about God, and we had so much fun living with them.  It has been an incredible month, and also quite exciting…

 

   Two weeks ago, three new men arrived at the center.  They were crystal meth addicts, and were not the least bit happy about being at the center.  One of the men was going through a visible withdrawal, and spent his inaugural day throwing up and trembling in the corner of his room. 

 

   The day after the three men arrived, they decided to make their great escape from the center.  It happened at lunchtime.  I had just consumed the usual – rice, chewy meat, a couple mangos, and more rice – and I leaned back contentedly, stomach full.  Suddenly, I heard a scream from the across the center.  Sopal, a deaf boy, was yelling and pointing.  The three new arrivals had climbed over a six-foot high fence and were bolting across the adjacent field.  Seconds later, some of the older students took off after them, hopping on bikes and motos and tearing away.  I contemplated the fullness of my belly, looked down at my sandals, and then started to sprint.

 

   Now, lest I receive accolades that I don’t deserve, I must confess that I took up the chase not because I had the best interest of the escapees at heart.  Rather, the appeal of excitement, a Chuck Norris-style apprehension, and visions of Cops flashed through my mind.  I was off.  I ran out of the center and down a road paralelling the field.  It was not a short race.  Thankfully, with a summer’s worth of marathon training under my belt, and pounding adrenaline, I was able to catch up.  When I arrived on scene, two of the older students were literally kung fu fighting two of the escapees.  I charged in, shouting, and before I could make Chuck Norris proud, the two new students gave up and fell to the ground.  I spent the next two hours climbing up and down a mountain looking for the third escapee.  We never found him. 

 

   That afternoon, when I returned to the center, the two disgruntled escapees were sitting on the floor under supervision.  One of them had a bloody nose and both had cut up feet.  I brought them some water and towels to clean off with.

 

 

   Now, I want to get to the real purpose of this blog.  Over the next week and a half, Chhan and D.J., the escapees, were changed by God.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says –

 

               Behold, all things have become new.

 

   Chhan and D.J. had never heard about Christ before, but it did not take long for Him to get ahold of their hearts.  As these two men lived in the joyful, Christ-exalting community at the Teen Challenge center, they met Jesus, began to walk the road of repentance, and are being made into new creations!  Everyone on my team noticed the amazing change.

 

 D.J. on the left and Chhan on the right, 10 days post-escape.

 

 

 

  

 

    You see, God isn’t in the business of making our lives better.  He’s in the business of changing people.  Completely.  He makes us into new creations.  The self-exalting person that we once were is no more, and we are freed to exalt Christ.  God changes us because it glorifies Him, not because it makes our lives better (even though it does)!

 

   That is what is so beautiful about D.J. and Chhan.  Two weeks ago they were using meth, living on the street, and stealing so that they could afford their next fix.  They were enslaved to their sin.  Their every thought was tainted by their addiciton.  Then, they placed their faith in Jesus. 

 

   Now, they aren’t happier drug addicts, or drug addicts who are going to heaven.  They are set free from their bondage to drugs.  Surely, they will have their struggles and their temptations, but God carries every good work to completion (Phil. 1:6).  This transformation has happened in the life of nearly every student I met at the center.  Where they once tried to escape from the center (a common thing) and go back to their sin, they now chase down other students because they know they need Jesus.  They are truly living in a transformational, life-breathing, Christ-exalting community.

 

   I guess that the point of this blog is to tell a cool story, to say that Teen Challenge is the bomb, and to encourage you (and me) that we don’t have to live in slavery to sin anymore.  When we are in Christ, God will make us into new creations.  I think, though, that there many times in life when we don’t live in Christ and instead live in our sinful flesh.  A question that helps indicate this dilemma is this:  Are we ever more Christ-exalting and ever less self-exalting? 

 

   If the answer to this question is not clear, or no, then maybe we are living in slavery to our sin.  Romans 6:6 says that, “…our old self has been crucified in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”  Because our old self was crucified, the body of our sin can be brought to nothing!

 

   You see, Christ has already purchased us freedom from our sin, but, for some reason, we often still choose to live in it.  Galatians 5:1 says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  Have we submitted again to a yoke of slavery?

 

    John Own once said, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”  The men of God at Teen Challenge are killing sin, living in Christ, and being made into new creations. 

 

   I’m praying that we would be men and women who do the same!