Reflections
by LewisA Reflection on a Marriage
Being married to a writer, as my wife is, can add both delight and trials to one’s life. I suppose it 
isn’t at all like being married to someone with the kind of gifts that are very steady, very nine-to-five, very solid. Writers tend more toward the adrenaline of the deadline, the very late nights that turn into very early mornings, the thrill of the acceptance letter and the self-doubt that lurks under the flap of every rejection-carrying envelope.
Some parts of that are fun, and the innocent spouse “gets to” share in the roller coaster ride. I’m saying, “Climb into this car and pull the bar down across your lap. We’ll turn upside down, and you can hear the wind even more than you hear the screams!” She is saying, “But I thought we were going to ride the carousel, and I would sit on a beautiful white horse going gently up and down while we listened to the calliope.”
There can be added joy in being married to a writer, because from time to time the writer might use his skills to express his feelings. In fact pen and paper have often played the role of Cyrano for me, and carried words of love to my Roxane.
Then there is the possibility that the writer will do something like this. He will write down his thoughts and share them with the public. Those days are like being married to a member of the paparazzi, I suppose, and they do come. This one did.
So I’ll exercise restraint and refrain from gushing, but I will also announce that this June 24 marked the 37th anniversary of our marriage, and God gets both the credit and the glory for it. He was the one who introduced us, after all, one evening back in Illinois when we were both invited to his house for a little get together. He has kept us together, too, continually reminding me how blessed I am that he gave me this gift and somehow convincing my wife not to toss me out when the roller coaster was upside down.
As I reflect on this marriage I realize there are still many things I don’t know, but I do know that when God is the matchmaker, a marriage can be an amazing and marvelous thing. Thanks, God, for sending your Son, and thanks also for sending my wife.
May all of your marriages begin with God, be sustained by God, bring glory and honor to God, and, whether you ride the rails or the white horse, bring you great joy.
—–
A Reflection on a “One Another” Service
In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul is finishing a section on spiritual gifts and their use in the church when he writes: “When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”
There are many lessons to be learned in that simple sentence, but one idea I infer from it was that the early church — or at least the church in Corinth, which Paul had a lot to do with — shared with and learned from each other when they assembled. Most of today’s churches, including ours, are much more practitioners of assembling and being led by full time pastors/teachers, people I sometimes jokingly call “professional Christians.”
Being one of those people, I’m clearly not opposed to that. Those who have particular gifts, especially gifts of teaching, ought to use them for the building up of the body of Christ (see Ephesians 4.11ff). But we should remember that the gifts we normally see used on Sunday are not the only gifts, and that even those who do have those gifts in abundance do not have them exclusively.
And so it was, with all that in mind, that we had a “One Another” service at PACC yesterday. We sang to God and to one another, we shared our struggles and joys with one another, we prayed for one another, we served communion to one another and passed the offering basket to one another, and we taught one another. Everyone who was there participated actively in at least one way, and most participated actively in multiple ways.
Perhaps when we post this e-mail on our PACC blog, people will comment on how they felt about that particular service, but I get to tell you now. I loved it.
It was an encouragement to me to hear the lessons that people shared, whether from a personal experience, from scripture, or from a God-honoring insight. It was heart-warming for me to observe a number of small groups of Christians sharing with each other and praying for each other. It was humbling to watch parents serve communion to their children, husbands serve their wives, wives serve their husbands, and friends serve their friends. Every part of the service touched me in a positive way.
So thank you, church, those of you who were able to be there, for being the church, for building up the body of Christ and for loving one another. The tender moments, the funny moments, the thoughtful moments, the moments of celebration, all worked together for the glory of God. And he must have been pleased.
—–
A Reflection on Breakfast at Denny’s
On February 3, 2009, Denny’s restaurants gave away an estimated 2,000,000 “Grand Slam” meals. I ate one of them.
According to an article published today in USA Today, the entire promotion cost Denny’s about $5 million, including food, labor and the ad they ran during the Super Bowl. Turns out it was money well spent, because (by their own estimates) Denny’s received more than $50 million worth of free publicity — and that was before they counted this article!
The truth about Denny’s, once at the very top of the restaurant industry, is that it has had a poor reputation for a long time. Christian artist Randy Stonehill even used it as a metaphor for loneliness in his song “Christmas at Denny’s.” As a result of a falling reputation and poor management, Denny’s lost many customers over the years. They knew they had to turn that around, but first they had work to do.
After all, what good is it to get a lot of people to come through your door if you know they won’t like it once they are there? The current CEO took over in 2001, and his initial assessment was simple: “I knew it was going to take a long, long time to fix it.”
Once that was done (after eight years!) they were ready. But how do you get people to come back? How do you overcome the negative feelings and negative reputation? By using something called “sampling.” It is a strategy that is often used to get people to try something again, or to try it for the first time. It worked for Denny’s in the short run, but will it work for them in the long run? They are optimistic that it will.
More importantly, though, would sampling work for the church? Yes, and no.
Without advertising on the Super Bowl (slightly out of the PACC budget, though maybe not yours), we still have the opportunity every day, every week, to invite people to dine with us in the presence of Jesus. We still have the greatest “product” ever offered to mankind, and it is already free. We have much to give to others, much to share with them, and much to learn from them. But we don’t often invite them. Why not? Why are we not like the woman at the well, who “…put down her water-pot and went into the town, and said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who has been talking to me of everything I ever did! Is it possible that this is the Christ?’ So they went out of the town and came to him.” (John 4.28-30, BBE)
I have some ideas about why we don’t invite, but ultimately it is a question you will have to answer for yourself.
Of course the goal of churches should be spiritual health and vitality, not numerical growth, so don’t read here that I am advocating growth for its own sake. I’m just remembering breakfast at Denny’s, and thinking I’ll probably go back. The food was OK, but the people were great.
—-
(Archives of Reflections can be found here.)