IT'S ONLY WORDS

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

What are the parts of a life that can’t be reduced to words? When you read about powerful experiences, how much of that power travels through words on a page? Robin Williams’ character in Good Will Hunting says it brilliantly, “You're an orphan, right?” He says to Matt Damon’s character, “Do you think I would presume to know the first thing about you because I read 'Oliver Twist'?”

Joe Simpson wrote Touching the Void about his narrow escape from death in the Andes mountains. I even hate how little that sentence conveys about the shocking story he somehow lived through. Just this week a good friend was trying to convey the rush of freefall from his recent skydiving trip. Somehow the phrase, “it was amazing” probably doesn’t convey much of what it actually felt like to fall from the sky at 130 mph for a few thousand feet. And even when it comes to experiences most of us have in common like falling in love – how much of your pain or joy or confusion about such powerful emotions can you squeeze through your mouth and into words and into someone else’s mind?

Our experiences are like a pacific ocean sized amount of stuff we feel on the inside – and words transfer about a thimble full at a time. We’ve all been frustrated at this rate of conversion. Words and thoughts are worth only small fractions of the actual experiences they represent – like trying to move a mountain one teaspoon at a time.

And I wonder in what way might our faith be like that – words only hinting at a huge torrent of meaning which lies underneath? After all, our faith is just a set of ideas, isn’t it? James writes about this same disconnect in James 2:14. When your faith is just a set of ideas – words in your mind – unmingled with actions and experiences and decisions and risks and initiatives, it lacks punch. We reduce a set of possible experiences to some mental affirmations. But we are moved most by the things we’ve lived through, not just thought about.

This Sunday I’d like to explore how we can activate our faith – and have it become more than just a set of nice ideas.

I hope to see you there, and I hope you bring someone with you.

CSW

Need to catch up on missed Sundays? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

LAST SUNDAY
Have you told yourself the truth? Need to catch up? Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
Moving beyond just a bunch of good ideas.

COMING SOON
Let’s be a church that understands a method behind the madness. So let’s have dinner and talk about vision. We’ll do it in smaller numbers over lunch after church. More details to follow.

DON'T FORGET
You’re better than a poster, a commercial, or the most expensive marketing initiative. The single most important part of growing a great church is the sentence only you can say: “What are you doing Sunday and can I pick you up at 9?” Try it. You’ll see.

The Hero Shot

It’s a plot point so common it’s almost more noticeable when absent: the hero gets shot and it’s time to dig the bullet out. This is the moment when the audience gets to squirm with inner agony as a wound is probed with fingers or pliers or the point of a pocket knife to remove the bullet before infection sets in. And it reveals a principle: sometimes you have to choose to do a bit of extra hurting now in order to prevent a whole world of pain later on.

I hope this doesn’t make you squeamish, but I feel the need to say it again in a slightly different way just to sharpen the point: sometimes you’ve got to deepen a wound and actually make it worse for the sake of how it could heal better later on. By it’s very nature – that’s got to be one of life’s most difficult decisions.

It’s a sentiment I can identify with more and more. I long to be matured – even if it means I must face some “maturing” experiences. I long to be changed – deeply, actually, honestly changed. Again, even if it means adjustment, correction or even the deep discomfort of having some projectile removed through a hole in my soul before infection sets in.

All of this requires a critical confrontation. You must be willing to digest the stark alternatives in front of you – to see the seriousness of your wound enough that you are willing to hurt your way out of it. Grim stuff, I know, but it’s a part of the architecture of life.

We talked this past Sunday about the power of a “confronted self” (you can listen for yourself through our podcast) and it’s the same kind of thing at work. Do you tell yourself the truth? Do you trim the stuff moving around in your heart – do you confront it? Because whatever grows unconfronted grows wild.

This Sunday, we’re continuing in this theme by looking at three critical confrontations Christ faced before His public ministry began – and perhaps three critical confrontations we all must make on our way to The Satisfied Life.

Hope to see you there and I hope you bring someone with you.

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
Life unconfronted grows wild, and your ears and nose never stop growing. Hear why this matters. You can listen on our podcast or visit our website.

THIS SUNDAY
3 critical confrontations we all have to make.

DON'T FORGET
Tell someone about the Thomas Question, our podcast or the website. You never know.

The Prickly Part

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

Does the 2 year old you ever really go away? Consider that it takes only 8 verses in Luke chapter 4 for the crowd around Jesus to go from hanging on every word to hanging Him from a cliff. In only 8 verses – starting in verse 22 with “…all were… wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips” (NASB) to verse 29 with “…drove Him out of the city… to the brow of the hill… in order to throw Him down…” (NASB)

That’s quite a transformation, don’t you think? And they don’t take long to get there. One would wonder if this was a crowd of adults or 2 year olds. But before we’re too hard on them, let’s be honest with ourselves. All of this shouldn’t make us wonder at how crazy that generation was – maybe it should make us wonder how crazy we all are. This is about human nature, not “them”. And I’m just not sure the 2 year old you ever really goes away.

Let’s be honest about something: we want the God we want, maybe not the God that is. The good news of Christianity is a potential happy ending for all of us. The prickly part has to do with a critical confrontation with your “self” – or more particularly the 2 year old part of your self. Some of what He has to say will have us hanging on every word, and some of what He has to say will have us wanting to dangle Him from a cliff. Those two compulsions may be separated from each other by only a few minutes at a time.

So when’s the last time you felt that latter – the “prickly” part? Because if you can’t remember, then maybe it’s time to ask yourself if you’re really listening…

Just a thought.

This Sunday we’re continuing in our series “A Guide to the Satisfied Life” (you can catch up through our podcast) with a look at some of the “prickly” parts of what we may need to hear. Join us for Starbucks at 9.45 and compelling conversation at 10.

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
Sometimes history can shift with nothing more than the effort it takes to flick a switch - or pull a trigger. We need to come to terms with change. You can listen on our podcast or visit our website.

THIS SUNDAY
One of life's critical confrontations, how to "prune" your "self" and the prickly part of God.

DON'T FORGET
Tell someone about the Thomas Question, our podcast or the website. You never know.