Today’s post, published back in November, resonated with my friend Matt. He wrote, “It was a reminder that God dwells in my heart. He takes up residence there. And my “property” is not for sale. He’s never moving out!”
If you have your own favorite chapter-a-day post that has stuck with you over time, please feel free to let me know. You can reply to this post or email me at tomvanderwell@gmail.com.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Ephesians 3:16b-17a (NIV)
When I was young, I was always on the go. I remember in high school getting up at 5:00 a.m. for swim practice before school. I then had practice again after school before going to play rehearsal that would sometimes last until 10:00 at night. My mom complained that I was never home. To her chagrin, that never really changed. Once I had my drivers license, it only allowed me more freedom and opportunity to spread my wings and fly wherever I wanted. And I loved being on the go.
It’s funny how life changes. I find myself these days feeling entirely the opposite. I love to be at home. I love our bed, my office, our kitchen, and our living area and pub on the lower floor. I love working from home and being where Wendy is always. I confess that sometimes feel pangs of grief that I have to run an errand. I don’t just love our house. I love to dwell in our home.
In today’s chapter, Paul states that he’s praying for the Ephesians that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” In Monday’s post, I mentioned the difference between growing up in the church and entering into a relationship with Jesus. But entering into a relationship with Jesus changes things entirely, because Jesus wants to dwell within me. I am His dwelling place the same way Wendy’s and my home is our dwelling place. The implications are life changing…
I don’t have to pray for God’s presence because He is always present in me.
Prayer can be an on-going inner conversation that I have with God at all times because He’s always present within me.
At any given moment I can be prompted, inspired, taught, convicted, challenged, soothed, encouraged, and/or motivated by the Spirit of Christ in me.
In the quiet this morning, I find myself encouraged by meditating on the fact that Christ loves to dwell in me the way that I like to dwell with Wendy in our home. Just last week I wrote about the shalom that God desires for all of us. This morning it strikes me that dwelling in my home is where I feel shalom even as Jesus’ shalom dwells within the home He has made in my heart.
Monday’s Chapter: Romans 15
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
My apologies to regular subscribers for the lack of posts this week. I’ve been fighting a nasty cold and have spent most days sleeping on the couch. I’m finally feeling better, thanks. Wendy and I are going to be on vacation the next two weeks, so once again this year I’ll be posting the top ten chapter-a-day posts from 2024. Today and tomorrow, I’m reposting a couple of reader’s/listener’s favorites. If you have your own favorite chapter-a-day post that has stuck with you over time, please feel free to let me know. You can reply to this post or email me at tomvanderwell@gmail.com.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1 (NIV)
To Paul’s readers, the term “living sacrifice” would have seemed an oxymoron. Animal sacrifice was a common part of religion at the time. This was not only true of Judaism, but most all of the Roman cults and religions practiced some sort of animal sacrifice. So whether the followers of Jesus in Rome who were reading Paul’s words had come from Jewish or Gentile backgrounds, they would have scratched their heads.
“Living sacrifice?” I can hear one say. “But, doesn’t the very notion of ‘sacrifice’ mean that something dies?”
“Quite right,” I imagine Paul replying if he were there in person. “You do.”
“Excuse me?” the Roman believer asks quizzically.
“You are the sacrifice,” Paul says, looking the believer in the eye and offering a warm smile. “In fact dying to yourself is really the heart of your worship. Not the occasional sacrifice of an animal like all these other religions you see around us. Anyone can do that and it costs very little in the long run. Cheap and easy, really. Our Lord Jesus was quite direct in telling us that in order to be His follower we have to take up our own cross. We would have to sacrifice ourselves for others, for Him. Just as He did for us. That’s at the very heart of true worship, and being a true follower.“
“But how does that work, exactly?” the believer asks. “How exactly do I go about making myself a ‘living sacrifice?‘”
“Ah,” Paul says, a twinkle in his eye. “I’m glad you asked.”
The entirety of today’s chapter answers that question. What does it mean to truly worship by offering myself as a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God?” Ironically, going to church, singing, throwing a buck in the plate, and all the things we normally associate with “worship” are not even mentioned.
Here’s a bulleted and paraphrased list of what Paul goes on to mention in the rest of today’s chapter:
Don’t follow the “It’s all about me” behavior and thought patterns of this world.
Transform your thinking; Renew your mind with Jesus’ teaching.
Don’t think too much of yourself; Maintain an on-going sober self-assessment.
Use your gifts and abilities to serve others.
Hate evil.
Cling to what is good.
Devote yourself to loving others.
Attach such worth to others that you naturally serve them first.
Be zealous in serving others, and keep feeding the zeal.
Be joyful in hope for all God can and will do.
Be patient when you’re afflicted, there’s a point to the pain.
Faithfully maintain an on-going conversation with God.
Share what you have with anyone in need.
Practice hospitality. Seriously, practice. You need to get better at it.
Bless those who persecute you. Do something nice for them and if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
If you know someone who got a win, sincerely celebrate with them (don’t envy their success or good fortune).
If you know someone who is grieving, be present in their pain.
Live in harmony with others; You might not be on the same note, but you can at least blend your differences so as not to be dissonant to everyone around you.
Don’t be proud; Every day you encounter people in lower, more humble circumstances than you. Be willing to meet them at their level, even if it means stooping below your comfortable social status.
Don’t be conceited. Consider the reality that you just might not that important in the grand scheme of things. Embrace it.
Evil that is done to you does not justify revenge. Let it go.
Do the right thing for everyone, not just your particular religious, political, tribal, ethnic or socio-economic constituency.
You can’t control others, but you can control yourself, so practice that self-control to live peacefully with everyone, not just your particular religious, political, tribal, ethnic or socio-economic constituency.
Let me repeat, give up your right to revenge. Vengeance is like drinking poison and expecting it hurt someone else.
If your enemy is hungry, give her some food.
If your enemy is thirsty, give him some water.
Responding to evil with your own evil tactics only escalates the situation and then everybody loses. Respond with goodness. You’ll sleep better.
“In order to practice this list on a daily basis,” Paul says to his friend, “it will require some sacrifices on your part:your ego, your time, your pride, your resources, your wants, your comfort, and even your rights. That is how we worship God by being a living sacrifice.”
Chapter for tomorrow: Ephesians 3
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. 1 Corinthians 16:18 (NIV)
“Oh! That was such a good night!” Wendy said to me as we began our daily nocturnal preparations.
Our guests had arrived at 5:30 that evening. The agenda was simple. We would hang out here at the Vander Well Pub. We put out some simple happy hour appetizers which comprised of an assortment of leftover charcuterie elements from Christmas. I poured a round of drinks.
The next thing I knew, it was almost 11:00 p.m. and our guests were saying for the third or fourth time, “We really have to go.”
It was a conversational five-hour deep dive into one another’s lives. Children, grandchildren, conflicts we each were facing, family challenges, work challenges, marriage challenges, and our hopes for the new year. There was seemingly no subject that was “off the table” and things flowed so naturally and organically that no one even looked at the clock for hours.
“Oh! That was such a good night!” Wendy exclaimed.
Our souls had been refreshed.
Good friends. Good leftovers. Good drink. Good conversation. Simple.
When was the last time your soul was refreshed?
Many years ago I remember a business trip with my boss in which he prompted a long conversation about a verse in one of Paul’s letters that no one ever talks about or quotes. It was Paul’s letter to Philemon in which he writes:
“Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.”
We talked for hours on that car ride about what it means to have your heart “refreshed” and how we can be “refreshers” of other’s hearts. I have never forgotten that verse and that conversation. As soon as I read Paul’s words this morning about Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus who delivered the Corinthian’s letter and “refreshed” his spirit, I immediately thought of the heart refresher Philemon. I thought my boss and our car ride conversation. I thought of our evening with friends just a couple of weeks ago.
As I sit in the quiet this morning and think about that night, it strikes me that there were no gifts given, there was no entertainment, and no one looked at their phones. There was, however, honesty, vulnerability, and a willingness to share with one another knowing that there would be no judgement, only love for one another and a desire for the best for one another. In a world that seems hell-bent on presenting a consistently sanitized and idealized image of ourselves and our lives online, it’s refreshing to have friends with whom we can be our challenged, flawed, and broken selves while experiencing an honest exchange of love and grace.
The truth is that I need my heart and soul refreshed on a regular basis.
I’m so grateful to have people in my life who do so.
I pray that I consistently do so for others.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Yesterday morning Wendy shared a Wayfarer post with me that I’d published back in 2019. I had no recollection of posting it, and I would never have recognized it as something I’d written if you put the text in front of me. Yet, it meant enough to her that she printed it and put it in her journal. C’est la vie!
What about you?
If there is a particular post from this Wayfarer chapter-a-day blog that has meant something special to you over the years? Would you be willing to share it? You can “reply” to this post and share it here on the site as a comment. You can also email me at tomvanderwell@gmail.com and share it with me personally if you wish to keep it on the down-low.
I’m curious what has resonated with you.
Please feel free to share, however you wish to do so!
Wendy and I are going to be heading out on a much needed two-week hiatus in February and while we’re gone I’d love to anonymously share posts that have meant something to somebody for some reason.
Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 1 Corinthians 15:29 (NIV)
Along my spiritual journey, I have worshipped and served in a number of different denominations and traditions. While they all shared that salvation was by grace through faith in Jesus, they varied in other thoughts, in their rituals, and in their worship. In some cases, I didn’t agree with some of what I considered to be non-essential beliefs, but I chose to respect them and to learn as much as I could. My experiences helped hone my own beliefs, taught me things I would have never otherwise learned, and gave me a far broader love for and understanding of what the Apostle’s Creed refers to as the “holy catholic church” which does not refer to the Roman Catholic denomination but rather to all believers everywhere, no matter their particular tradition or denominational bent.
For Paul and the other Apostles, one of the biggest challenges they faced was a combination of lack of human control, poor communication lines, and all sorts of competing religious thoughts and philosophies that crept into the local gatherings.
In today’s chapter, there are two fascinating things mentioned by Paul in one verse (the one at the top of today’s post). It refers to one major issue that became a major issue in the church in the first few centuries. The other is a curious and largely forgotten ritual. Let’s start with the major issue.
Gnosticism was an emerging religious philosophy in Paul’s day and took on many different thought traditions of its own. Basically, it taught that humans and the material world were the lesser meaningless creation of a minor god, and that the spiritual realm was the only thing that mattered. It also taught that salvation came from “secret knowledge” of one’s true and spiritual identity. So, gnostics denied Jesus was God (no spiritual being would choose to become human), Jesus died for sin (there is no sin, only ignorance), or rose from the dead (there is no bodily resurrection, only leaving the material behind to attain the spiritual). In today’s chapter, Paul is addressing some within the local Corinthian gathering of believers who are embracing the notion that there is no resurrection and undermining the essential core beliefs of Christianity.
In making his argument for resurrection, Paul mentions that some of the Corinthian believers were being “baptized for the dead.” He doesn’t explain it. He doesn’t condemn it. He just mentions it in passing as part of his argument and it doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Great Story. Apparently, Corinthian believers were being baptized on behalf of people who were physically dead in hope and anticipation of effecting that person’s after-life status in some way. We don’t know and the ritual obviously was not perpetuated, though the practice was curiously “resurrected” (pun absolutely intended) as part of the theology of Latter Day Saints in the 1800s.
A few days ago I quoted St. Augustine who taught that there should be unity in the “essentials” and liberty in the “non-essentials.” In the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that we have in one verse a rather interesting combination of the two. For Corinthians to deny that Jesus rose from the dead undermines the foundational and essential belief of the faith itself and what Jesus Himself claimed and taught. At the same time, Paul references this curious practice of baptizing people for the dead, a non-essential ritual that was not widely practiced, never referenced anywhere else, and died away with time.
Along my spiritual journey, I’ve learned and benefitted from understanding the difference between essentials of my faith and belief in Jesus and His teaching, and the non-essentials of ritual and tradition that vary widely all over the world. I have learned from and even spiritually benefitted from learning and practicing non-essentials from traditions that are different than mine. I confess that some of them didn’t resonate with me or I found them silly. In all those different experiences, I met brothers and sisters who shared the same essential beliefs with me and whom I will enjoy seeing in heaven.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. 1 Corinthians 14:20 (NIV)
I had a conversation the other day with parents who have a child in their late teens. As with most parents, they were struggling with that fact that this intelligent, capable child regularly makes really stupid choices and foolish decisions. Yep.
I shared with my friends that Wendy and I both observed a major shift in our daughters as they reached their mid-twenties and their brains were fully developed. I learned how much the brain is a part of our maturation process. We don’t control it. It just is.
At the same time, I know fully functioning adults who continue to act like teenagers as if their brains never fully developed. They allow themselves to be led by their self-centered appetites and passions. They repeatedly make foolish life decisions. Their lives are always in chaos. They are perpetually trying to escape the painful consequences of their own childish foolishness.
Paul is dealing with people like this among the Jesus’ followers in Corinth. In today’s chapter, he once again tells the Corinthian believers to “grow up” and stop acting like children.
One of the things I thought as a foolish child was that adults reached a level of complete maturity around the age of 30 and then it was sort of smooth sailing after that. You act like an adult and the rest of life is easy. It was around the age of thirty I started making some of the most foolish and childish life decisions of my entire journey!
As a disciple of Jesus, I’ve had to embrace that the process of growth and maturity never ends. Jesus said He was the Vine and I am a branch of that vine. What healthy plant stops growing, developing new growth, and bearing fruit? So it is with life in the Vine.
In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the many ways I still need to prune, water, feed, and cultivate continued spiritual growth and applied wisdom in my life. I do this so that as my aging body wanes my life continues to grow, flourish, and remain spiritually fruitful until the end.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)
The followers of Jesus in Corinth were a classic dysfunctional human system. There were not only differences of opinion, pride and arrogance had escalated to the point there were factions in conflict with one another and people suing one another. There were not only humans making honest human mistakes, there were individuals flaunting and taking pride in their immorality. Conflict, anger, hatred, favoritism, envy, greed, and selfishness were in the driver’s seat. It’s the very reason for Paul writing his letter.
Which I think is important to remember when reading today’s chapter which is one of the greatest and most familiar passages ever penned. “The love chapter” is regularly read at weddings because of its beautiful and thorough description of love. I’ve actually always found this a bit ironic because the Corinthians believers were definitely not feeling the giddy love of newlyweds towards one another. They were in divorce court with one another, and that’s the context which inspires Paul’s famous words about love.
As a disciple of Jesus, I have learned two critically important lessons along my life journey.
The first lesson is that I don’t get to pick and choose who I love. Enemies, critics, people of other nations and cultures, people on the other side of the political aisle, sinners, and people who have wronged me, cheated me, persecuted me, judged me, spoken evil about me behind my back, and even injured me are all at the top of the priority list of people Jesus commands and expects me to love. It’s more important than going to church. It’s more important than my morality and purity. It’s more important than my spiritual disciplines. It’s more important than anything else. Jesus asks me to love Him so much that I’m compelled to love my enemies, haters, and those who’ve injured me the same way He did. This is my ultimate spiritual calling and priority.
\The second lesson is that there are no exemptions to lesson number one.
In the quiet this morning, I find that I’m not thinking about love in grand and glorious poetic ways. It’s too easy to do that when you read today’s chapter outside the context of the situation it was originally addressing. I’m meditating on love in the down-and-dirty realities of those people I don’t want to love, those I feel I shouldn’t have to love, and those my soul tends to justify hating, condemning, cursing, and generally wishing ill-will. As a disciple of Jesus, if I am unwilling to do that, then talking about love in grand and glorious poetic ways is both empty and meaningless.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV)
In the past several years, I’ve been surprised to have multiple clients ask me to mentor and coach individuals on their teams. In many cases, these individuals are young people in the early stages of their careers and having their first experiences in management. In other cases, I’ve been asked to come alongside someone who is struggling in their role and system around them is experiencing pain as a result.
I have found through these experiences that sometimes individuals simply need help in managing their time, improving their organizational skills, or learning how to better communicate with team members who have different temperaments or communication styles. On occasion, however, I have helped people discover that they are in a job for which they are not suited. They are a square peg in a round hole, and the mismatch has negative ripple effects across the team and the broader system.
When I discover that an individual and their job are not a good fit, things typically go one of two ways. If my protégé is frustrated and struggling with the job, it can be fairly easy to help them see that it would be a win-win for them and the entire company, if I help them navigate to a different position that better suits their individual strengths and desires. If, however, my protégé is thoroughly convinced that they are, in fact, a round peg that fits perfectly in this round hole job and they have everything they need for the task, my job becomes far more challenging.
In today’s chapter, Paul addresses the concept of spiritual gifts. It’s fairly simple. When a person receives Christ the indwelling Spirit infuses them with a spiritual gift or gifts so that every believer can provide particular acts of service and work for the good of the whole. Paul famously uses the human body as a metaphor. Depending on our individual gifts, we may be a different part of the body (e.g. eye, ear, hand, foot, and etc), but all parts are necessary for the body to function as a whole in a healthy way.
The problem, of course, is phenomenon I’ve witnessed consistently in my experiences in different churches as well as my experiences working with different businesses. I see individuals convinced that they are an eye, a gifted eye, despite being blind to the fact that they are most definitely an elbow. A body in which all of the parts know and embrace their unique and essential role in the functioning of the body will operate smoothly. A system in which parts are ignorant regarding their gifts, demand that they are gifted in ways they are not, and refuse to embrace the ways in which they are actually gifted will continually struggle to exist and operate in a healthy way.
In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded of my post the other day in which I’ve observed the unique ways that Wendy is gifted and has a “many, not me” way of approaching all things. I have different gifts than she does and I operate differently. We have, however, done the work to recognize and know our different gifts, temperaments, and ways of operation. We have learned to embrace not only our own unique gifts but also the unique gifts of the other. When our differences create conflict (and boy do they sometimes create conflict) we have worked to extend grace to one another and consciously choose to remember that different is not wrong. The good things our giftedness brings to the relationship far outweigh the challenges that arise from our differences, but it requires both of us to honestly and humbly embrace our own gifts as well each other’s.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 1 Corinthians 11:13 (NIV)
I spent one semester at a fundamentalist Bible college. The legalistic culture and its effects were a surreal experience in so many ways. I have so many stories from those few months. The saving grace was that I had a friend who shared the experience and we didn’t live on campus, so we got to escape the crazy after class each day and return to the normality of our own homes.
One of the things I learned in my fundamentalist sojourn was that legalistic systems pick their hills to die on when it comes to rule following. At the school we were attending, one of those hills was the length of hair that men were required to maintain. It had to be short. This was defined as a man’s hair couldn’t touch the collar of your dress shirt. A coat and tie were required attire in class for men. Women had to wear skirts or dresses with a hem that was below the knee. These rules had to be perpetually justified and reinforced, so it was always interesting when a lecture would randomly stray into a defense of one of the schools rules.
We were in a class called Biblical Hermeneutics (e.g. How to interpret the Biblical text) one day when the professor launched into a defense of the short hair rule. One of the defenses for the rule comes from today’s chapter: “Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair it is to her glory?”
Today’s chapter is filled with instructions that Paul gave to the church regarding head coverings and hair. The passage fuels life practices in different believer groups to this day. When you see a group of Amish or Mennonite women with their hair pulled up under a bonnet, the practice comes directly from following Paul’s instructions in today’s chapter.
Of course, one of the other lessons I learned from my months in a fundamentalist and legalistic system is that they also pick and choose which rules to be legalistic about and which to ignore. Our school was rabid about men having short hair, but they completely ignored Paul’s instructions in today’s chapter about women wearing head coverings. Likewise, I find it fascinating that Paul ends this same letter to the Corinthians by telling them directly to “greet one another with a holy kiss.” In fact, Paul gives this same instruction in four different letters! Not once did my professor kiss me!!
As I was meditating on this passage this morning and all of the layers of cultural and religious context, I could help but notice that Paul clearly tells the Corinthian believers, “Judge for yourselves.”
Thanks, Paul. I think I will.
There was recently an article in the Wall Street Journal about the resurgence of young women in the Catholic church choosing to wear traditional veils when they attend mass. It was interesting to hear their reasoning and I think it’s awesome that they are finding spiritual lessons in the practice as they judge for themselves. At the same time, I once knew a follower of Jesus who had hair that was so long it went all the way down to his butt. He had a friend who went to prison and he promised his friend he would pray for him every day and would not cut his hair until his friend was released. Now that’s a cool expression of love for a friend and I’m glad he judged for himself to do it.
In both of these instances, sincere followers of Jesus have made different choices for different reasons. Each of them are making their choice from a place of spiritual growth and increasing maturity. Neither of them is doing it because a legalistic religious system is demanding it from them and threatening them with negative consequences if they disobey.
In the quiet this morning, I’m actually thankful for my experiences at that Bible College. It taught me so many valuable lessons about what being a follower of Jesus is and isn’t. It exposed me to fundamentalist legalism and allowed me to see it and personally examine it from the inside. And it continues to remind me of St. Augustine’s wisdom:
In the essentials, unity. In the non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.
I sometimes fantasize about being able to go back into those classes with all the knowledge and life experience I now have. When my professor was waxing eloquent about how Paul directly says that long hair is a disgrace on a man. I’d ask him to flip to the end and read 1 Corinthians 16:20 where it says just as directly to greet one another with a holy kiss.
“Pucker-up, Professor!”
Or perhaps we should all, with spiritual maturity, learn to judge for ourselves about these things.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
…even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. 1 Corinthians 10:33 (NIV)
Wendy and I have many, many differences. Quite often those differences are at odds with one another. Our brains are wired differently and it’s taken years for us to understand how the other one thinks. Of course, there are both strengths and weaknesses in how each of us think and operate.
Eight years ago Wendy directed a show for our local community theatre called The Christmas Post. It was the third time she’d directed it. It’s a great musical and Wendy is a great director. People loved it, and people loved being in it.
A few years ago Wendy was inducted into our community theatre’s Walk of Fame, and I had the honor of providing her induction speech. I shared my first experience of being around Wendy, which happened to be on stage. I was performing in South Pacific and she was the prop master. There was a scene in which I’m served a sandwich and she asked me what kind of sandwich I like so that she could make sure that every dress rehearsal and every performance I had a fresh sandwich that I liked on stage which she took the time to prepare herself.
That might not sound like a big deal to you, but this is theatre. This is community theatre. I’m used to prop people not even giving a single thought about that sandwich until the night of the first dress rehearsal when I have to ask them, “Where’s my sandwich?” They then run across the street to the Dollar Store to see if they happen to have an expired loaf of bread we can have for free or buy the cheapest loaf of white bread on the rack. They will then put two slices of white bread on the plate.
“No one’s in the audience is going to see that it’s just bread,” they’ll tell me.
By the end of the run the bread will have mold on it. Gross, but, I’m told “It’s okay. No one can see that!”
Wendy would never do that. She was in charge of props and she was going to ensure that if I was going to have a sandwich on stage it’s going to be a real sandwich, a fresh sandwich, and a sandwich I actually like and might even consider eating during the scene. It was the most considerate a stage crew member had ever been to me in my countless stage experiences. It was a small thing, but I was grateful, and impressed.
I shared in her induction speech a side of Wendy that few people see or appreciate. As her husband I watch her spend her time, energy, and resources thinking about everyone. And it’s not just with theatre. She does it with family, work, and friends. It’s so innate to her that she doesn’t even know that she’s doing it. She wants everyone to have a good experience and every detail of everything she plans is painstakingly thought through and structured so as to be considerate of the whole.
In today’s chapter, Paul once again reminds the believers in Corinth of the importance of being considerate of others. As he writes about his own approach, he describes Wendy: “not seeking my own good but the good of many.”
I confess that I am not naturally like that. I have always had a very active inner world and I live a lot of the time preoccupied inside my own head. One of the things Wendy has pointed out to me on numerous occasions is that I had an entire conversation with her inside my head and forgot that I didn’t actually have it with her in real life!
Mea culpa.
I have learned from Wendy’s example of thinking about the “many, not me.” It’s one of the first things that endeared me to her, and it’s one of the things I will forever try to learn from her, and emulate. It is so absolutely spot on with what Jesus tried to teach His disciples when He washed their feet on the night before He was executed. It’s what He exemplified to us all the next day when He became the sacrificial lamb for our sins.
It’s about the many, not me.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
