I can tell you I am a different person than who rolled up to training camp on January 3rd in Gainesville, GA. I’m even a different person than the one who left Costa Rica on the way to Panama after month 3.
It’s been months, and I can say that the Race hasn’t changed my life. So, if not the Race, then what? Or a better question is, then who? And the simple answer is Jesus.
I remember in the weeks leading up to the Race, talking with friends and repeating the same phrase, “it’s only 6 months and I will be the same person who left”
I was wrong. And thank the Lord for that.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8 NIV
This verse starts off the book of Acts. If you chop this verse in half, you end up with two profound statements. A promise from Jesus to His disciples, and a charge with what they should do and where they should go.
The Holy Spirit
Something that could take up 100 more blog posts. The power of the Spirit. Seeing people healed, seeing hearts changed, hearing the voice of hope in the darkest situations.
We plant the seeds of the gospel, but it is the Spirit that changes hearts and opens them to the Father.
Jerusalem. Judea and Samaria. The ends of the earth.
Jerusalem: Their neighbors, their families, the people they pass on the street. Jesus is making sure that they don’t overlook those who are right beside them.
Judea and Samaria: the town over. They might be a little different than them, but not really.
The ends of the earth: Pretty self-explanatory. Everyone.
What are they doing in all these places, why do they need the Spirit to go with them? What do they have to share?
The simple gospel.
Simple [ sim-puhl ]
adjective,
1 easy to understand
2 not artificial
The word simple in front of gospel isn’t there to downplay it or to lessen its impact. The Gospel is bold, powerful, life-changing, and in all that at its heart, it is simple. It is for everyone, everywhere. It isn’t meant to be held in fancy language for only those who can afford it. It is to be handed out on the streets to the hopeless and the poor in spirit. It is the most powerful act of love in humanity.
The God of the Universe coming down to earth as man to take on the punishment for the sins of everyone. And in the greatest story of love comes the greatest act of power, when He defeated death and conquered the grave.
So yes, I’m so grateful for the Race. For the hard and easy, the people who challenged me, who embraced me, who taught me. The times laughing in kitchens, worshipping in little Costa Rican churches. The moments spent in hammocks and the drives in the bed of pickup trucks. Planting moringa tree seeds and planting seeds of the Good News.
The God I have encountered on the Race is the same one who is back home in the States and the one who lives in our hearts. It doesn’t take going on the Race to see Him, but rather allowing yourself to be open and ready to accept Him.
Our hearts aren’t changed by a trip or by an encounter, they aren’t flipped by a conversation, our world isn’t turned by just a good sermon. What truly changes us is the simple yet profound gospel of Jesus Christ.
