Connecting Lifestyle
John 1: 35-42
Perhaps one of the best movies ever made was Forrest Gump. It was creative, well-put together, thought-provoking, emotionally heart-tugging. I learned some profound things from Forrest Gump. The first is that “life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Second is stupid is as stupid does. Stupid has nothing to do with your IQ and everything to do with your discernment and decision-making ability and many times that comes down to just plain common sense. I’m reminded of a fraternity brother William Nakleh. William was brilliant. He took and excelled at so many Advanced Placement classes in high school that by the time he entered Tulane, he was already mid way through his sophmore year. In 1985 when Hurricane Juan was coming toward the mouth of the Mississippi and suddenly veared west, William decided he wanted to go see a hurricane. He drove right into the path of the storm, lost control of his car, running off I-10, hitting a fence and then killing a cow and totaling his car. The third lesson I learned from Forrest Gump is that I don’t have to work so hard on the endings of my sermon. When I’m done, I can just say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
At the end of the movie, there’s a riveting scene when Forrest’s wife, Jennie, who had made a lot of unwise choices in her life, dies at the age of 35. Forrest is standing at her grave. (Run clip) “Do we have a destiny or are we all just floating around kind of accidental like, like a feather on a breeze?” That’s a question everyone on this planet has to come to grips with. There are a lot of people who just show up on this earth kind of accidental like, their life is like a feather on a breeze which just bounces from one relationship to another or one thing to another with no real rhyme or reason. And basically everything in between is really just nothing. If that is true, there really is no destiny. There is no purpose in this life. And as a result, those people are kind of just stuck in life. On the Kenai Peninsula along the Cook Inlet, there’s a “Keep Out” sign along what looks like a beautiful beach. But it’s not. It’s glacial silt which is like quick sand. A few years ago there was a couple who was honeymooning and riding ATV’s. They were driving all over the place and the wife ignored the Keep Out signs. When she got off the ATV, she sank down to her knees. At first, the husband thought it was funny but he stopped laughing when people along the road started yelling and waving for him to get out. They called for help and by the time the firemen arrived she had sunk down to her thighs. They tried using pressure hoses but that failed. She was now waist high in the stuff. They even brought in a helicopter to pull her out and that failed until finally the tide came back in and she drowned. Too many people are just stuck in a life like it’s accidental and they’re sinking even lower until they’re stuck and can’t get out. It may be a life that’s focused on themselves, their pleasure or their happiness. Or maybe it’s a life built on mice things: a nice home or a nice car or a nice job. But regardless, they’re stuck.
The Good News is there is a God who can rescue you from that stuckness, an incredible and loving God who can pull you out of anything, anywhere, if you’re willing. God’s got a purpose and destiny for you. “For I know I have plans for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11 Most of us stumble just thinking about how to recognize God’s plan for our lives. How many of you feel like you have a clear understanding of God’s vision for your life? But discovering God’s plan for your life is less about finding God’s will than it is about following His example in Jesus. Jesus was all about a connecting lifestyle. Wherever Jesus went, he tried to connect to people, especially, the hurting, the sick, the needy, the despised and the lonely. Jesus connected with the 12 disciples, fishermen and tax collectors, by calling them to come and follow him. He connected with the sick when he healed a man with leprosy, a paralytic who was lowered in through a hole torn in the roof and a woman, who had been ill for 13 years, when she touched his robe. He reached out to Jairus and his sick daughter during their time of need. He healed the daughter of a Greek Syrophoenician woman. He connected to people by offering them forgiveness when He encountered the adultress who was about to be stoned and when He spoke healing words to the woman at the well. Wherever Jesus went, he connected to the people around him so that they then might be connected to God. The same is true for us: we are to be about “Connecting diverse communities to a lifestyle devoted to Jesus.” At the heart of that is you and me having connecting lifestyles. And that may mean going beyond our comfort zones and outside our circle of friends.
Mark Breaux tells the story as a college freshman of riding his bike to his part-time job at a gas station. The route took him through the projects and one day he saw a boy shooting baskets by himself, so he stopped and met this boy, who he learned was a sixth grader named Willie. They started shooting baskets together and before long had hit it off. So he went back again and again to see Willie. He learned Willie’s mom was a single parent trying to raise four kids and that Willie didn’t have a positive male influence in his life. So Mike kind of adopted Willie as his little brother. Willie would come over to the campus and hang out with the guys, play basketball and attend games with them. After graduation, Mike lost track of Willie but he had heard that Willie had become quite a good basketball player. Many years later the phone rang one day and Mike answered. The voice on the end of the line said, “Is this Mike Breaux?” Yes. “The little skinny white dude with lots of hair who played basketball?” Well I’m still a white dude but the other three things are in the past. “This is Willie.” Willie, Willie, Willie, he repeated in his mind trying to think of if he even knew a Willie. “You know, Willie from college.” You mean little 6th grade Willie, ball playing Willie. “That’s me.” That’s when they began to catch up. He found out that Willie had struggled with drug and alcohol addictions and even got into trouble. “But I’m on the right path now. I’ve met a girl and we’ve started going to church together. They had a men’s retreat last weekend and I went along. I surrendered my life to Christ while I was there.” I told them about my spiritual journey and how there was this little, skinny white ballplayer who stopped by my house and became my friend and how he was the first Christian I had ever met. And then he said,. “Mike I was wondering if you would drive down to Bloomington and baptize me.” Absolutely! And then he writes, I would never have written “Baptize Willie” down in my master plan but his baptism was the result of following the example of God who wants to lead our lives in ways we’ve never dreamed” and that starts by having a connecting lifestyle with people we might never reach out to otherwise.
A number of years ago researchers interviewed a group of 95 year old men and women. They asked them a simple question: “If you had to live life all over again, what would you do different?” First they said they would reflect more. Second they said they would risk more. And third “If we had to do it all over again, we’d do something with our lives that would live long after we’re dead and gone.” I don’t know about you but I don’t want to wait until I’m 95 to think about those things. I want to reflect more now. I want to risk more now for Jesus. And I want to do something right here and right now that’s going to live on long after I’m gone for the sake of God’s kingdom. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” I want to do the things God planned for me to do. But that may mean we have to jump into doing things we might not otherwise choose to do.
Let me ask you a question: how do you get in the swimming pool? Are you a toe dipper? Do you stick that toe ever so slightly in the water to test the temperature? Then do your ankles, all the while thinking, “Oooo that’s so cold.” Then your calves: wooo. Then your thighs: wooo. Then up to your chest: wooo. Talk about painful and miserable. You know the best way to get in the pool, don’t you? The cannonball! You take a running start, tuck those knees and fly into the air and into the pool in one fell swoop. Water goes flying everywhere. The waves go out and hit the sides of the pool, then they bounce back at you. And if you did that in a pond or a lake, the ripples would just keep going and going.
I think that’s what God has in mind for us. He’s saying, “Trust me! Jump! Make a splash with your one and only life, and we can make ripples together. Live your life in such a way that you touch someone else’s life. Then they’ll touch someone’s life and they’ll touch someone’s life and long after you’re dead and gone, the ripples will still be going strong.”
Mike Breaux tells the story of a woman named Leah who lived in Las Vegas where he was pastor. He first met her at the end of the worship service when she came forward and she was crying. Leah was physically stunning but there was an emptiness and brokenness in her tear-filled eyes. Between sobs, she said: “I’ve never been a churchgoer. This is all new to me. I don’t even know why I’m up here talking to you or even if this is allowed. But my life sucks right now. I was going to have an abortion but people talked me out of it. Now I’ve got this baby and this baby doesn’t like me.” She went on to talk about how she was a single mother who never really had a real example of how to be a good mother. “I feel so lost and clueless. I don’t know what to do. He’s got colic and cries all the time. What do I do with this baby?” Mike didn’t know what to do but he introduced Leah to his wife Debbie and they began to talk. By the end of their conversation, Debbie had invited Leah over for dinner and for the next year, Leah and her baby came over for Sunday dinner after church.
Leah’s occupation was a “wine goddess” at Caesar’s Palace. Wine goddesses dress in a seductive Cleaopatra-type outfit and her looks and charm brought in enough money to ensure a pretty good living. Over that year, Debbie mentored Leah in how to be a good mom and slowly you began to see the change in Leah. She also grew in her love for God and the more she loved God, the more veils she sewed on her costume. When her son was about to turn 1, she wanted to throw a birthday party but her apartment was too small. So she asked if she could have the party at Mike and Debbie’s house. That would be great and Mike was asked to take pictures of the party. The party came and Mike had the camera ready and was taking pictures as guests arrived. One by one all of these beautiful wine goddesses started to arrive at Mike’s house and Mike starts taking pictures and thinking, “God, when I surrendered my life to do whatever and whenever you would have me do, I never thought it would be in a room of wine goddesses. But somebody has to do it, so it might as well be me, as difficult as this is.” The doorbell kept ringing and it was like that box of chocolates, you never knew what you were going to get.
Eventually Leah gave her life to Christ and she has become an awesome mom raising her two little boys. Her life in Christ began to ripple on Lisa who was at the party that night and Lisa’s life began to ripple on others until before long there was a whole row of wine goddesses sitting in worship each week, soaking up the love and grace of God until each of them gave their life to Christ. And it wasn’t long after that, Leah told Mike they were working a belly dancer. “She’s going through a tough time and we’re trying to get her to come to church with us.” And that’s the way it happens. One life is touched by the love and grace of God who then touches another life who then goes and touches another life and the ripples just keep going.
Jesus said, Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.” Mark 8:35 LB
How about you? Do you really want to live? You have a choice right now. You can choose to float around accidental like, like a feather on the breeze all your life. Or you can hear and respond to the call to follow the example of Jesus and begin living a connecting lifestyle, causing ripples with your life to touch another who touches another who touches another. God said, I made you. I love you and my plans for you are to give you a hope and future you can only imagine. “Come follow me, live a connecting lifestyle and we’ll make some ripples together!”
And that’s all I have to say about that. Amen.
