Catalyst Racer // Month 11

This is a guest blog post from Brandon Boyd, Catalyst World Racer!

The World Race is a unique mission trip that takes young adults to 11 countries in 11 months to serve while living in community. Brandon, our Catalyst Racer, has taken the challenge to abandon his worldly possessions (all except for a backpack) and pursuit of the American Dream to experience how God is moving around the world.

Check out his Month 11 blog post below, and follow him on Twitter @CatalystRacer. He shares firsthand accounts of what God is doing in the nations through a small group of world changers and a lot of faith.

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I have a personal question to ask you.

Who is your God?

I think this could be one of the most important questions there is. Our portrayal of who God is has an incredible amount of influence on who we are and how we live and think. Is your God always good, or does he pour out his wrath and punishment? Is his will on this earth for sickness to be healed, or does he send illness to teach you a lesson?

Who is the God you see?

I have my own ideas about who God is. I’ve had lots of bad things happen in my life, and I used to blame God for some of them. The biggest question I have wrestled with for years is, “Why did my mom die?” I definitely blamed him for it for many years, but I realized recently that it’s not his fault she died.

I don’t want my lack of understanding or experience to taint and disfigure his perfect form, and neither should you. It is so easy for us to explain away our own experiences. I have prayed for healing and then tried to explain away the reasoning behind why we didn’t see anything.

If we want to know who God really is, one of the best places to look is in the gospels. Jesus came to do that Father’s will, so the life of Jesus is a perfect reflection for us of God’s character.

The apostles’ lives are also great testaments to God’s goodness. Peter carried the presence of God so well that his shadow brought healing. Paul touched clothing that, when brought to those in need, cast out demons. Examining their lives and ministries has taught me that there is a deeper place to go, and I can always continue learning how to better steward God’s presence.

Over the past few months in Africa, my teammates and I have prayed for many people to be healed. Sometimes God heals them, and sometimes it seems like nothing happens.

One day in Tanzania we prayed for a woman with a bad knee and didn’t see anything happen.

A few minutes later, we prayed for a Muslim man who also had a bad knee. While we were praying, I was pretty stunned when a piece of knee that wasn’t there previously appeared and pushed my hand out of the way in the process. I felt a couple more things pop into place, and then we said amen. I asked him to move it around, and when he felt no pain he started jumping on it.

Later in the day, we prayed for a blind woman, convinced she was going to open her eyes and see. We saw no change.

Why did we see nothing with one knee, and then power and love with another right afterwards? Why, after that miracle when our faith was high, did we see nothing with the blind woman?

I could look at these events and decide that God is inconsistent or that his character isn’t worth trusting. But then I add to my experience the truth of Scripture, and I know God is good and trustworthy.

I choose to see a God who healed a lost Muslim rather than one who didn’t heal a blind woman. I choose to see a God who has healed two blind men with my hands rather than one who left the others I have prayed for blind.

How do you choose to see God?

What God do you serve?

Your answer makes all the difference.