Your Life As Preaching

This post probably won’t make sense. So there. That’s my disclaimer.

My goal this week is to edit the episode we have recorded with Dave Jacobs where we talk about preaching. Can I have it edited and up for this week’s release? I don’t know, but that’s my goal.

As I was thinking about the topic, I connected it with something people have told me in the past ten days – the first ten days following my son Doug’s accident and traumatic brain injury. They say that they are learning something through watching me and our family.

My son Douglas. Loving life. :-)

I seriously don’t know how that is going, but somehow our lives speak a message our mouths could never articulate. As I reflect right now on the conversation that Jonny, Dave, and I had about preaching, I am now thinking that the message of our lives is as, or more, important than the message we prepare for a Sunday.

I think it’s like loving God by loving others. The Apostle John and Jesus both said that we love God by loving our neighbor. They basically taught, “don’t tell me about how much you love God if you can’t even love the person next to you!”

Yet it’s not just us loving them, but God loving others through us. We just get to participate. In the same way, our lives betray what we really believe. If my life is betraying something good, then I am very thankful – but also have to point to God – I am just participating with him in his kingdom.

Maybe we all preach through crises in our lives. Maybe what we believe really does come out, or is proven out, in the crucibles of life.

I know this: in the very toughest of times, it’s great to KNOW God, and know that he is walking with you through the storms, and will make beautiful things in your life even with the worst of ingredients.

I have two closing thoughts, disjointed as they might be:

One, don’t run from the crises. These are the places where God is most visible, and faith is most important. The crises, the tragedies, the struggles – they allow God to be so visible at our side. They show us that God, the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and our faith are very real and important things.

Two, consider life as preparation for message. We speak out of our experiences. Maybe the best preaching will come out of an alignment with what we believe and what we live.

As I sit here in Doug’s hospital room, he is getting a little ornery. This is a good thing. He’s back, from the coma. Impatient, wanting to get up, wondering why in the world he is in this bed. No words, just the look on his face. Gotta run – more life to live.

Thank you again for praying for Douglas. He is better today than yesterday – and moving toward recovery. Thank you for being the body of Jesus and for supporting me and my family in prayer and encouraging words.