Living with Grander Vision: March 2009 Archives

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.

I took a ministry trip to Europe a couple of years ago. I got up one morning and was instantly greeted by the realization that I would be facing a lot of complex issues that day. It wasn't just the content of my talks that concerned me; I also felt burdened about the language barriers, how I would deal with the always-interesting French/American dynamic, and how I would stay attuned to the Spirit's promptings in the midst of distractions. So I got on my knees and prayed. Before I finished the prayer, I added, "God if you would open the door of conversation with somebody today, I would be happy to walk through it..."

An hour later, as I waited in the hotel lobby for my ride, the night watchman was standing by a far counter, glancing alternatively at the morning paper and at me. We struck up a relatively safe conversation, and I noticed he had an accent that wasn't French. "Where did you grow up?" I ventured.

"A place you Americans have never heard of," came the response.

"Hey, try me," I laughed.

He grinned a grin that said, I told you so! and then replied, "Tunisia."

Not easily dissuaded, I took a risk. "You didn't grow up in Hammamet, did you?" I had been to Tunisia a grand total of one time and upon getting lost one day, I somehow landed in a place called Hammamet.

He jerked back his neck, raised his eyebrows, and looked at me like I had a crystal ball in my briefcase. Before he got tangled up in the obvious questions that were sure to follow, I explained how I had wound up there and admitted that it was the only Tunisian city I knew to guess.

Still stunned about my knowing his hometown, he asked what I was doing in Paris and listened with awe on his face as I explained that I was there to help pastors spread the love of Christ to the average people walking Paris' streets.

His answer sticks with me still. "I've never met them," he said, "these pastors who care about the average people in Paris."

We talked about his perceptions about Christianity and about his native religion of Islam and, once my ride arrived, agreed to keep the conversation going by e-mail, which we did. I walked away from that dialogue shaking my head in disbelief: Did God bring me nearly six thousand miles from home to fulfill a speaking obligation, or did he do it to help one young man start to sort out his faith?

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Spend several minutes considering your last few "work" days--whether that work involves being a professional, an at-home parent, a service provider, a student, or some other role. Jot down the work activities you accomplished, followed by the conversations you remember having. How likely is it that God would use your tasks and projects and services rendered to reach one of his children who is living far from him? If you are available to walk through whatever "open doors" of meaningful, spiritual conversation your Father provides for you today, tell him so now.

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.

My friend Tommy was the resident wild man on a sailboat racing team I started a decade ago. I spent three long years talking to God about Tommy and invested more hours-long, heart-to-heart conversations in the guy than even I could believe. I knew my good-hearted buddy--boozing, partying ways aside--would make a fantastic Christ-follower, if only God could get his attention.

Tommy was a stellar boater and a trust-worthy man. For the most part. I asked him to take a group of staff members from Willow on a sailing trip one time, using a very nice boat that belonged to a friend of mine. It was to be something of a teambuilding excursion.

The first afternoon of the trip, a guy named John felt prompted to ask Tommy a spiritually-directed question. "You've been talking things through with our senior pastor, right, Tommy?" John asked. "Talking about matters of faith and so forth?"

"Yeah!" Tommy said with a smile. "I've really enjoyed my time with Bill. It has been great!"

John went a little deeper. "Tommy, is there any reason why you wouldn't want to step across the line of faith right now and give control of your life to Jesus?"

Unbelievably, Tommy agreed. All he wanted to know was what he needed to do to make things official. So right there, under a bright, bold sun, Tommy prayed to receive Christ.

A few minutes later, I received a phone call that was placed from that boat. "Bill!" Tommy shouted. "Guess what? Guess what?!"

I figured he had wrecked my friend's boat. "You went out, you got hammered, and you wrecked the boat," I said.

"No, no, no! I gave my life to Jesus today! Your friend John helped me..."

Aside from the fact that my three-year investment had been eclipsed by my vulture of a friend John, who swooped in for the evangelistic kill, I was overjoyed that Tommy had come to Christ. I never get tired of watching God transform a human life. Never.

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How do you decompress as part of your normal daily or weekly routine? How do you reconcile the tension between using "recreational" time to relax and rejuvenate, and allowing the time to serve as a setting for spiritual conversations to unfold?

Instead of forcing a conversion, jot down whatever ideas come to you for how you might instead help "thaw out" someone you run with or walk with or grab coffee with every Saturday morning. What questions could you ask? What personal God-stories could you tell? What insights could you lend that might move your friend from a negative ten, spiritually-speaking, to a negative nine?

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.

Matthew's tax-collecting ways were crooked, but Jesus was inclined to make the young man straight. "Follow me," he said to Matthew that day. And with immediacy, Matthew did just that.

Betrayer became kingdom-builder.
Corrupter became crusader.
Career sinner joined the company of the redeemed.

Matthew was introduced to the other disciples and all too quickly soaked up the soulish intimacy, laughter, candor, and camaraderie the Christ-following life has to offer. He was equal parts elated and indicted by the fresh joy he'd found. I'm loving all of this, he probably thought, but what about my tax-collecting friends whose lives are going nowhere and whose eternities still hang in the balance?

He threw a party and invited all of his friends, including his most recent one, Jesus Christ. And he held it in his home. The place where Matthew lived would become Common Ground as old-life friends shook hands with New Life incarnate.

I frequently envision that party when I'm in my own home with guests from various faith backgrounds. I imagine Matthew pulling Jesus off to the side, by the punch bowl, and pleading, "Please make something happen here tonight, and please use me to do it!"

It's the same petition I pray to God these days:

Do something amazing in the place I call home.
Draw people to it.
Help people feel at ease in it.
Wrap your Spirit around it.
And use that setting to transform lives.
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Do nearby friends and neighbors consider your home a welcoming place, or would they describe it using different terms? What simple step can you take today to begin establishing a transformational setting, right where you live?

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.

How do you know what to say, what to do, when you sense God is opening a spiritual door in your conversation with a colleague, a neighbor, the friend you've had for years?

"Stay in step with the Spirit," the apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:25. It's where our power lies. Where our strength is gained. Where our footing is sure.

When I am in step with the Spirit, I have a heightened awareness of people's needs all around me and the confidence to go and help meet them.

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What disciplines or practices help you to feel most "in step" with the Spirit of God? Spend the next few minutes telling God what you value most about being in step with him. And commit yourself afresh to staying there today.

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.

Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, Jesus was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!"

Immediately, the tree withered.

When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Matthew 21:18-22)

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A faith lesson in a fig tree. It was Jesus' style, using the ordinary stuff of life to help people apprehend the extraordinary.

What is your style, when it comes to helping point people to faith in God?

Interpersonal, like Christ?
Invitational, like the woman at the well?
Intellectual, like the apostle Paul?
Confrontational, like Simon Peter?
Service-oriented, like Mother Teresa?
Testimonial, like modern-day apologist Lee Strobel?

Know your style, relax in your style, speak from your style, and then swerve not: God made you just the way you are.

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at...