Won’t Back Down

Well, I won’t back down
No I won’t back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won’t back down

When people ask how our trip to Israel went, I don’t even know where to begin. It was everything I expected and also completely different than I expected! Here are some words that come to mind when I think about our trip:

Hot. Man, I haven’t sweat that much since…ever! I was so smelly by the time we got back to the hotel everyday. It was 100-110 degrees, and I’m so thankful that we had an air conditioned bus to get back on to after the stops!

Exhausting. You know those trips you take that are jam packed but worth every second? This was one of those. Each day, we were out the door by 7 am and seeing sight after sight until late afternoon. I felt mentally exhausted at the end of each day, trying to remember where we went and what we learned. There is a crazy amount of history with Israel and trying to memorize it in 6 days was pretty difficult. We had an amazing guide who didn’t mind explaining things time and time again. We also had two pastors from our church who helped us put into context the places we were and the symbols that Jesus used to create beautiful lasting pictures for all of us as we read His word. It was exhausting in a completely Jesus filled, spectacular kind of way.

Mind blowing. Seriously. I just walked where Jesus walked, sat on the steps where he taught, put my feet in the water where he called his disciples, floated on the Dead Sea, stood on top of the Mountain where He fed 5,000 with just two fish and 5 loaves of bread, and touched an olive tree that was  2,000 years old and was likely in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying and weeping. WOW.

Reviving. This trip was the perfect mix of people. It was full of laughter and fun. The age range was 30s-70s, but everyone meshed so well. We stayed up late laughing, having a glass of wine, and playing “get to know you” games. We told jokes, but we also got serious and shared parts of our stories. It was a safe place where we practiced loving on others. You’d never know when the Holy Spirit would hit ya with a big whammy. Discussions were so Spirit filled, questions were asked in love, and we all got along so well. I miss this amazing group of people already. They revived me!

Inspiring. One very special place we were able to visit was Caesarea Philippi. It is the remains of a place where people came to worship many pagan gods and do crazy things with animals and other unimaginable stuff during Jesus’ day. The land was lush, but no Jew would ever go there because it was pretty much like hell with the all shenanigans that went on there. 

In Matthew 16: 13-20, Jesus brought his disciples to this very place after much ministry. It was like Jesus taking them to the Red Light District in today’s world. Daniel pointed out a very interesting dynamic that Jesus didn’t say, “Hey disciples, go check out Caesarea Philippi, and I’ll wait over here for you.” NO! He went with them. In the same way, He will go with us everywhere, too. I love this. 

He took them to the gates of hell and pretty much said, “Alright, here we are in front of all these gods. Here we are in a place where you can make the choice to worship whoever you want. So, who do you say that I am?”

It’s so symbolic the way Jesus brought them to this place to remind us all what it really means to follow Him. It’s not pulling ourselves away from the world so we aren’t tainted. It’s spreading the light in the darkest places. Of course, we can’t do it without Jesus. We are just human.

But what a great picture to help me remember that I won’t back down.

No I’ll stand my ground
Won’t be turned around
And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down
Gonna stand my ground
And I won’t back down

 And I won’t back down.