Yesterday, I went skydiving. My older brother and I jumped out of a plane from 14,000 feet in the air. I have always had an adventurous spirit and have loved doing fun things like this. Some adventures are more daunting than others, and I thought skydiving would make me nervous at least a little bit. From the moment I googled the age limit for skydiving and found out it was 18 to the few seconds standing on the edge of the plane looking down thousands of feet below me, I never had the slightest ounce of fear. I probably should have but I didn’t. I just jumped with my heart beating in excitement and my face smiling in the exhilaration. I fearlessly, potentially risking my life, jumped out of a plane for the sake of a thrill. And that it was. (Side Note: If anyone has every had the slightest desire to go skydiving, I strongly encourage it. It was incredible!!)
As I was thinking about how not scared I was, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Am I that fearless when it comes to my walk with the Lord? Do I fearlessly love Him and others? Do I fearlessly stand on His promises when the waves get choppy? Do I fearlessly cling to His Word when this world doesn’t make sense? Do I fearlessly pick up my cross on a daily basis? Do I fearlessly model His love and grace everyday?
In the midst of a new semester of school and the upcoming of a summer in Africa, the Lord has been daring me. Daring me to what? Daring me to be all His. What does that mean exactly? It means daring to be a Solomon.
Solomon is famous for his astounding wisdom written in the book of Proverbs and displayed in his life. Son of David, Solomon became king and asked the Lord of one thing: wisdom. The Lord, pleased with his request, granted it to him. With this wisdom, the Lord equipped Solomon to be the builder of His temple. There is so much to learn from Solomon’s immense wisdom. However, as I was deep in the Old Testament last semester, God taught me some different things about Solomon’s life. He taught me that Solomon’s purpose on this earth was not to be wise but to build a place for the Lord’s presence to dwell. Solomon’s life was about bringing God’s presence to His people. The process was long and hard. The building of the temple took twenty years. 1 Kings describes the innumerable intricate details that went into the building of the temple. Specific measurements, designs, decorations, furnishings, and layouts were required. It was a major project. It honestly wears me out just thinking about organizing such an important task for such a long period of time. Oh it was so worth it. God’s presence was now tangibly among them. When it was finished, “the cloud filled the temple of the LORD.” (1 Kings 8:10) It gives me chills thinking about. Can you imagine watching this magnificent temple filling up with the presence of God, the God who spoke creation into being, the God who rescued you from slavery, the God who performed miracles to save you, the God who called you His. His presence visibly filled the temple.
It’s amazing to sit here and marvel at this moment in history. It’s another thing to fall on your knees and ask the Lord to do the same in your life. We live in a post-Jesus era. We are that temple of God that is filled with His Spirit. That’s us. You and me. We are the visible, tangible presence of God in this world. We are the temple of God on this earth building the expansion of His kingdom. The more temples there are, the larger His kingdom is. No greater joy exists in this world other than imagining the day where we see the Lord’s forever kingdom and hoping it is overflowing with people. I was listening to a John Piper sermon the other day, and he defined love in the most profound and accurate way I have ever heard. He defined love as inviting others into the presence of God. Guess what! We are that presence here on earth. Loving others is inviting them into community so that they can experience a taste of God’s presence and fall in love with Him. This is discipleship. This is temple multiplication.
God invites us to experience His presence by being His presence on the earth and inviting others to experience it as well. What intimacy with the Father we can experience when we fearlessly take the role of being His temple and temple-builder, a Solomon. But what does this look like? Honestly, I find myself asking this question too often when the Lord teaches me something. I ask Him what obedience will look like before I surrender to obedience. It does not matter what being His temple looks like exactly. I do know, like Solomon, it is a process. It is a construction process that is directed by Him alone. Let Him build. It is going to look different for every single person. It could be fearlessly loving that person that is so hard to love. It could be selling your possessions to live a more financially generous life. It could be adoption or foster care. It could be humbly serving an arrogant boss. It could be diligently working in your academic studies. It could be fostering a Christ-like community. It could be getting to know people who are nothing like you. It could be studying God’s Word with a new or struggling believer. I could go on and on. Ultimately, it does not matter with what being His presence looks like when you are so in love with His presence and want others to be in love as well. This presence that we are so in love with is available to us because He is so in love with us. The cross is why we are temples.
For me, I don’t know the details of being a temple, but I know I want others to experience His presence everyday and for eternity. I want to be a Solomon and build temples for others to see God in tangible ways. I want to be a Solomon in Birmingham, Alabama. I want to be a Solomon in Haiti. I want to be a Solomon in Africa. I want to be a Solomon to the ends of the earth. The Lord has dared me to be a Solomon. And I want to fearlessly take on this role of building a temple, whatever that looks like.
Dare to surrender. Dare to love. Dare to be His. Dare to go. Dare to trust and obey. Dare to be a Solomon. Fearlessly jump out of the plane because adventure awaits. Adventures that far exceed the thrill of skydiving; adventure that advances the kingdom and invites others into His presence. There is nothing more exciting and nothing more exhilarating. Jump fearlessly. Dare to be a Solomon.
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