by Chad Lewis on November 21, 2008
My throat has been hurting for a few days. It felt like a mini-fire this morning. I may have strep so I’m running by the doctor before I go to speak to some students on a retreat this weekend.
This summer and fall have been quite an experience for me. I have had ongoing fatigue and some reoccurring sicknesses for about 4 months now that I just can’t kick. The doctors have done a battery of tests and we’ll keep on trying to what the true source is.
As I was driving today, I was reflecting on what I am currently doing in a fatigued state. I then wondered what I could do if my energy and health returned. It is important to note that it is easy to fall into the subtle trap of “doing” more stuff and thinking that makes us more spiritual or more acceptable before God. So when I talk about “doing”, I am always trying to remind myself and others that our “doing” must flow from our “being”. So, back to my main idea.
What would flow from my life if I did have more energy? I didn’t really know how to answer this question. I was pondering what would happen if I really saw my neighbors on my block as family and starting treating them as such. We already reach out, but I still believe it would look a lot different if I really started believing this. I wondered if I would record another C.D. and play out again. This wouldn’t be for the sake of seeking to “make it” but simply to build relationships to share my life and the gospel with others.
It seems that, even though I am fatigued, that I am doing more than ever before. I have more relationships than ever, people probing into my life, new initiatives to equip the body, and the list goes on, but even so, I sense that my heart wants to hold back some things for myself. I am tentative to give away my time to others and continually put myself on the line and surrender all to God today. I’m on this journey and I know that God is at work. I long to continue to put myself in the place where God is bringing to light the things that I cannot see. I long to be used by God to do what He desires for me to do. This is not to earn His approval or to live a life that will be remembered. I long (and want to long) to live on mission because God has captured my heart and made me new. I want to do this because my Abba knows best and I do want to hear, “Well done My good and faithful servant.”
The reality may be that I will be more useful as a weary and scik man than as one who can play basketball all day or go about everyday with massive amounts of energy. I know Paul found this to be true for him (2 Corinthians 12). So whether this is a lifelong thorn or I get my energy back tomorrow, I will seek to trust in the One who gave Himself for me.
by Chad Lewis on August 14, 2008
Suffering with a 103.1 fever, I contemplated the brevity of life this week. Though the fever has passed and I am recovering, it is easy to be reminded how short life is and how weak we truly are. One of my spiritual heroes is Oswald Chambers. Though I differ with a few of his theological views, his writings and life have been an inspiration to me. Oswald lived a full life and died suddenly in his early 40’s from a ruptured appendix.
As I laid in bed, I thought about my life. What if I only lived until I was 40. The reality is, I am not guaranteed my next breath. James 4:13-16 says that we are a mist that appears for a little while and vanishes.
But, if I had but five and a half years to live, I wonder what I would do differently today? It doesn’t matter what I would do tomorrow, because my gift of procrastination allows me to always see tomorrow as a day away. So what would I do today?
Some things I wouldn’t change. I would still hug Ginger and Thomas everyday after work. I would still help out with the house chores and work on my house. I would still seek to know people and do my job well.
But some things would change. Slight as they might be, some things would change and I’m seeking to change them today.
I would pray a little more. I would print out some prayer requests and at down times, I would pray instead of catching a witty video on youtube. I would be more missionally minded concerning my neighborhood and what that will look like as we begin a missional community at our home next week. I would be more mindful of the brevity of life and seek God’s face with more fervency knowing that anything of eternal significance must come from His hand. I would be sad to leave my family, but I would begin longing for home a little more each day – my eternal home with my Savior and King.
All of these things have been slight changes for me today. I’m hoping to stay disciplined, by God’s grace, and see some of these stick with me for the long haul. What would change for you?
by Chad Lewis on June 2, 2008
Henri Nouwen writes, “Every good relationship between two or more people, whether it is friendship, marriage, or community, creates space where strangers can enter and become friends. Good relationships are hospitable. When we enter into a home and feel warmly welcomed, we will soon realize that the love among those who live in that home is what makes that welcome possible.”
It is easy in America to fall into the trap of compartmentalizing our lives. It is easy to say, “I do the church thing on Sundays, I have a small group on Tuesday nights, and I do a service project once a month.” And then others say, “Man, you are rocking the Christian life.”
This leads me to ask, “Where in the world did we become so satisfied with mediocrity?” I have been satisfied way too many days. When I seek to be comfortable and shut my life off from others and then choose when to minister, I need to do a heart check. The following are some questions from a missional cardiogram that we use often at Sojourn Community Church. I will add a few of my own as well. These questions are not meant to beat us up, but they are meant to help us see if we are really being hospitable and if we are on mission 24/7 and not just when we feel like it.
• Do I have regular conversations with people outside the faith?
• Have I shared a meal with someone outside the faith in the last month?
• Have I served a friend who is outside the faith in the last month?
• Have I invited a friend who is outside the faith to church or my community group?
• Have I shared the Gospel in the last month?
• Do I look for opportunities to serve my neighbors?
• Do I have the tendency to run from people who are needy?
• Do I need to repent?
• What can I do this week to meet the needs of one person in my life?
How can you start? Here is one easy example. My wife and I just moved into a new neighborhood and are renovating an older house. She has already baked cookies and taken them to some of our surrounding neighbors and begun to ask them about their stories. We are having the widow who lives next door over this week for supper and will paint her window trim in the next weeks. All of this things are simple, but they all breathe life. And we hear the familiar refrain, “You get life when you give yours away.”
by Chad Lewis on March 12, 2008
Language is such a funny thing. Sometimes we say something and mean something different. Sometimes words can have several meanings and we get confused when things are taken out of context. I once heard of an anecdote that posed a young Christian as dropping their Bible open to find out God’s will for their lives. They dropped it open and it said “Judas went and hanged himself” and then the next place it dropped open was to the phrase “go likewise and do the same.”
“Church” is a word that too often means very different things to different people. To most in the our day and age, “church” simply means the building that we go to on Sundays and Wednesdays. However, we would all agree that Jesus didn’t die to redeem a building.
A pastor has been challenging me to redeem the language of church. He says that we should kick hard against the notion that we ever “go to church” but rather, we go to gather with other members of the church. The church is me and the church is you. We can gather as the body that calls itself Sojourn Community Church, but we are not going to a building and calling it church.
Is this really such a big deal? I hope to answer this question more thoughtfully and eloquently later, but yes, it is a big deal. People for ages have been going to church and paying ministers to do the work of the Gospel. You can go to church twice a week and check those boxes off your to-do list and feel good about yourself. However, you cannot “be” the church and ever not consider your life as being a life on mission. We never cease being on mission if we consider that we “are” the church and we must reach out to a lost and hurting world that needs the healing power of Jesus Christ. May we go and “be” the church to those in our lives.
My throat has been hurting for a few days. It felt like a mini-fire this morning. I may have strep so I’m running by the doctor before I go to speak to some students on a retreat this weekend.
