NEW YEAR, LESS ME - Part 5, The Selfless Church

February 24, 2020

“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” Pope Francis

We wrapped up our New Year, Less Me series and special thanks to Steve Messeh for talking to us about what it means to apply these principles at the church level. Just like our personal lives, we need to make sure our churches are “others-focused” and continue to be the Body of Christ in our local communities.

Why? Because as we’ve been saying throughout this series, “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45).

Who Cares about Hospitality? - LIVING HOSPITALITY, Part 1

May 6, 2019

"Be hospitable to one another without grumbling." (1 Peter 4:9)

That’s the command St. Peter gives to a group of believers who were undergoing severe persecution and who believed that the end was near. To them he speaks about the importance of true, Christian hospitality.

Why? Is hospitality really that important? What does it mean to be hospitable? Does it mean merely inviting people over for dinner parties?

That’s the topic of our latest series at The Well called LIVING HOSPITALITY. We’ll explore the meaning and importance of hospitality and what it means to open up our homes and our hearts to others in need.

The "Friend of the Poor" - IRRATIONAL GENEROSITY, Part 3

December 18, 2017

At Christmas time, we don't celebrate that Christ gave to the poor, but rather that He BECAME poor. He became poor so that we could become rich.

As we wrapped up our series on IRRATIONAL GENEROSITY this week, we learned about a semi-modern saint who did the same. He not only gave to the poor, but he became poor so that the poor might become rich.

And in doing so, he teaches us the lesson that with every poor or weak or needy person that we meet, we have the chance to be part of a divine transaction - one in which we SERVE Christ IN others and we BECOME Christ TO others.

Today God Was a Kyrgyz Woman Named Aigul

January 24, 2014

I stood at what felt like one of the largest intersections I had ever attempted to cross in my life. There were cars coming from every direction by way of a streetlight that hadn’t factored in pedestrians at all. My heart sinks every time I cross any street here in the Kyrgyz Republic because THEY DO NOT YIELD!

This time I stood there, and went into a state of shock. I was imagining myself being plowed by a trolley bus, or getting trapped between lanes. I know, you think I’m being dramatic. But you would be too if a hundred minibuses and cars were coming at you from several directions at over 60 mph.

I looked over at a woman next to me who took one step forward, and had a determined expression on her face to make it across the street. I don’t usually make eye contact because I like to avoid the mental exhaustion of introductions and chitchat – in not one, but two, foreign languages which I have not yet mastered.

It was not like me at all actually. I was so caught up, drowning in these horrible thoughts, that I mentally and physically couldn’t have given myself a second to look away from the dust clouds and racing tires.

But she looked at me. And I looked back. It was too late! Our eyes locked, she spoke in very fast Russian, grabbed me arm in arm, and led me across the street. I asked her name, and then she left. Her name was Aigul (eye-goul), and today, this was God coming to meet me.

On Selective Compassion

March 29, 2013

I recently saw a documentary called “Life in a Day.” It’s a film that compiled thousands of hours of footage from people around the globe going through one particular day. The film had some light-hearted moments – like when a young boy asked his dad why he was filming him and nervously veered his head out from the camera frame – but mostly, it was sobering.

It showed destitute people in Nepal, a helpless family in a hut in Egypt, a young boy carrying his wooden stand through streets till he arrived at his designated corner for his shoe shine operation. The juxtaposition of those images with a man giddily driving his Lamborghini, a teenage girl obsessing over her iPhone or a man in a restaurant watching sushi pass him by on a conveyor belt were naturally jarring. The idea that some people have so little while others (us) have a lot is a subject of which we are aware. And to see such images is heartbreaking.

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