Day 41 / The New Normal

What an amazing Journey we are about to begin...

Wait...didn't we just finish a 40-Day Journey Toward a Life of Active Compassion? Okay...there is a sense in which our journey has always been and always will be. Part of what makes this experience such a God-Journey is that we cannot nail down a specific beginning, and we certainly do not know exactly where God will take us next.

But from now on, there are some differences in how this journey will proceed and continue. Our resolve and generosity will be tested. Our faith and perseverance will come under fire. But our opportunities to follow-up with people we’ve met and projects we’ve started will be very exciting! We will see a harvest of compassion as we build on the relationships we’ve started and strengthened so far. I am so thankful to be at this stage in our journey.

I would like to challenge us to think of this next phase of our life of active compassion as The New Normal. Today, and every day from here on is a "Day 41." This is a metaphor for the next day, and every day, after our 40-Day Journey Toward a Life of Active Compassion.

As I prepared for this day, I reflected on many scriptures, and I was impressed by an interesting parallel. Joseph struggled in an Egyptian prison for 13 years. He was living in faith that God would fulfill the promises Joseph received in his dreams as a young man. But 13 years is a long time...especially when falsely accused.

But then it finally happened. In God’s perfect timing, Joseph was brought before the Pharaoh of Egypt and given the opportunity to help him in a time of great distress. Like us, Joseph was passing on the gift God had given him, but he did it in such a way that the Pharaoh could see God in and through Joseph. This exchange confirmed to Pharaoh that Joseph could be trusted and he committed the future of the nation to his care!

The statement of this exchange is Genesis 41:41--

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt."

Genesis 41:41 reveals the New Normal for Joseph. This became his Day 41. From then on Joseph was no longer the dreamer...instead he was living the dream. He was no longer the prisoner longing for freedom...he was free. He was no longer the boy with potential...he was the man taking care of business. This is the essence of all the Day 41's in the history of God’s people"

- Noah’s Day 41 came on the heels of 40 days and nights of rain.

- The Ten Commandments and the Covenant of God became the Day 41 for Moses and the people of Israel after he had been on the mountain of God for 40 days.

- Life in the Promised Land was the Day 41 for the people of Israel after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

- David liberated the army of God when he defeated Goliath--after 40 days of Goliath’s intimidating rant against God and his people.

- The anointing of Elisha and the new Kings of Israel and Aram became the Day 41 for the ministry of Elijah after 40 Days in the wilderness.

- The people of Nineveh experienced the mercy of God on their Day 41 after 40 days of preaching by Jonah.

- Jesus started his ministry on Day 41 following 40 days of testing and temptation in the wilderness.

- And the amazing power of the resurrection was unleashed in the testimony of those who saw Jesus in the 40 days between his triumph over death and his return to heaven.

- There is a sense in which the entire world is living in Day 41, awaiting the final coming of Jesus, just as he promised.

Active compassion is our New Normal. This is our Day 41!

- Don McLaughlin

Day 40 / The Harvest

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together" (John 4:34-36).

I have been anticipating this weekend for months. As our leadership team planned for this 40-Day Journey, we imagined a celebration right from the beginning. God celebrates. He has led his people in mighty celebration throughout our history. He celebrates amazing accomplishments like the building of the temple in Jerusalem, and he celebrates the return of the one prodigal who was missing from home. Celebration is part of God’s nature.

But what are we celebrating, and how?

The passage I opened with (John 4:34-36) is in the midst of a paradigm shifting experience for the disciples of Jesus. He had led them into the "foreign and forbidden territory" of the despised Samaritans. It must have felt to them like they were doing something wrong. Historians record that the Jews traveling north and south (from Jerusalem to Galilee or vise versa) would travel several extra miles, even on foot, to avoid going through Samaria. Jesus led them right into Samaria, and more importantly, into a head-on collision with their own prejudices, fears, and misunderstandings of the God they served.

When they approached Sychar, a small town in the middle of Samaria, He sent them into town on their own to get groceries while he set up the discipleship moment. Jesus chose to reach out to the Samaritan woman because she was on God’s heart. The passage reveals that her view of God and the world was, like His disciples, full of misconceptions and misunderstandings. By the time the encounter with Jesus was over, she has been restored to God and her community. She has become an “unlikely evangelist” to her community and they actually come to faith. (Notice John 4:28-30 and 39-42).

But the disciples are also going to receive a powerful challenge. I have often wondered what the apostle John was feeling and thinking when he wrote his gospel many years later and reflected on what it was like to be there as an eye-witness to the events. He was there that day when they returned with the groceries and stumbled onto Jesus openly visiting with a Samaritan woman. Jesus was not scolding, scorning, or snubbing her. He was engaging her in a life-changing conversation that affirmed her value to God, himself, her community, and to herself. And, by way of association, Jesus was also clearly demonstrating that the disciples should also embrace her value. If she was precious to Jesus then she would be precious to his followers.

But they could not see that. Notice in that John reveals what was going on in their hearts,

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her” (4:27).

There could only be one reason you would talk with a Samaritan woman: You want something. Maybe directions. Maybe the time of day. Maybe to ask her to leave. But you don’t talk with her to get to know her. You certainly do not talk with her as an equal.

She represents the invisible people in our world. They are almost like street signs, trash cans, elevator buttons, or any other function we look to in order to get on to where we are going. We do not see them as people. We see them as a function, and this keeps them invisible to us. The Samaritan woman was invisible to the disciples at the relationship level of life. They could see her with their eyes but not with their hearts.

That is why Jesus has to tell them, "Open your eyes!"

God saw among the Samaritans a great harvest of souls for eternal life. And the early preachers of the gospel found willing hearts and great joy among the Samaritans as they shared the gospel there. (Acts 8:1-7, 8:25)

This 40-Day Journey Toward a Life of Active Compassion is all about Jesus taking us on a similar, paradigm-shifting mission. Through the story of the Good Samaritan, he calls us to see invisible people through His eyes, feel them with His heart, and to reach out to them with His hands. The "invisible" Samaritan in the story becomes the example of how someone sees the "invisible" wounded man on the side of the road. Jesus uses that sacred irony to press us toward the shift he wants to see in us.

Let's open our eyes to His harvest! Throughout these 40 Days we’ve been moved into situations and conversations that opened up opportunities to serve others and to know them in a deeper way. This is a step into the harvest about which Jesus is talking in John 4:35. As we continue to grow into this life of active compassion, the desire of God’s heart to love the world sacrificially will become more and more a part of our daily experience. People will no longer just be functions in our path, but people, precious to us and to God.

I want to challenge you to take a moment and write a sentence to answer each of the following questions:

1. Who did you serve during the 40-Day Journey?

2. How do you know them better now than you did before?

3. How will you follow up with them, or others, as a result of this journey?

- Don McLaughlin

Day 40 / Epiphany

Wow! 40 days have already flown by. I have been so blessed by all of you and your fellowship. I have heard some amazing stories of how God has been at work during this journey toward a life of active compassion. I have seen God’s people here in this place rise up to meet a challenge and it has been life-changing.

The dictionary defines the word "epiphany" as a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

That's not a bad description of what has happened over the last 40 days for many of us. We have prayed for open eyes, hearts, hands...and God has answered those prayers in a huge way.

Experts say that it takes 21 days to change a habit. For some, turning a blind eye to those in need has been a bad habit we’ve needed to change. Well, we’ve had 40 days to change that habit into a habit of trying to see how we can help...rather than just pass by. None of us wants to slip back into the habit of crossing to the other side of the road and passing by.

It is my prayer that we will continue this journey. I pray that God will bless you richly for your active compassion.

- Sheree Yasko Hill

Day 39 / Acquired Tastes

Can you remember the first time you ever drank coffee? (For those of you who are not coffee-drinkers, feel free to doze for a moment.) Did you like it? Did you "doctor it up" so that it was palatable? For most folks, coffee is an acquired taste. Most of us learned to drink it. Whatever our reason was--it was what was around all the time, everyone in our family drank it, it was free and Cokes were not--whatever the reason, we made a conscious decision to drink coffee.

I firmly believe that my dad decided to like black walnut ice cream because my brother and I didn't like it and wouldn’t eat it.

My grandparents grew up during the Great Depression. I've mentioned that my mom was one of twelve kids. My mom tells about how her mother would fry chicken for supper and everyone else would eat and the only thing left would be the neck, so she (my grandmother) always said that she preferred the neck. My grandmother decided in her heart that she would eat the chicken neck so that her family could eat the more premium pieces.

How many of us will just go ahead and eat the heel from a loaf of sandwich bread because we know that no one else will eat it? Parents decide in their hearts to go ahead and eat the heel on the loaf of bread so that their kids can have the more premium slices.

There's a whole lot involved when deciding something in your heart.

In the movie City Slickers, Curly (the cattleman) has this heart-to-heart talk with Mitch (the character played by Billy Crystal). Curly tells him what the secret of life is-–it’s "one thing." When Mitch asks him what the one thing is, Curly tells him that every person has to figure it out for themselves. The "one thing" for us is what we have decided in our heart.

Think about some of the things you have decided in your heart and then acted on.

In Acts 4, Barnabas sold a piece of land and gave the proceeds to the apostles in Jerusalem so that no Christian there would have to be in need. He decided in his heart to be actively compassionate and generous. I know that there are so many opportunities for me to be actively compassionate and generous that I blow past without even recognizing them. But I’m trying. I’m trying to do better. I’m trying to pay attention.

- Sheree Yasko Hill

Day 38 / Over-Tipping

Did you ever see the Steve Martin movie My Blue Heaven? It was never in danger of winning an Oscar, but I thought it was pretty funny. It's about a mob-guy-turned-informant who is placed in the Witness Relocation Program and moved from New York City out to the suburbs in California. Only he never fit in there. In the smaller town he was relocated to, his "big city" ways stood out like a sore thumb.

In several scenes in the movie, Martin’s character (Vinnie) keeps over-tipping the staff wherever he happens to go. When questioned about it more than once, he finally says, "It's not tipping I believe in. It's over-tipping." Then he talks about how people remember you, and whenever you go back to where you over-tipped, you receive better service.

Okay. In this very random and weird reference, there is a gem to be found--People remember generosity. It is out of the norm. Be generous. Be out of the norm.

- Sheree Yasko Hill