Jun 14, 2024 |
WLSU, When A Church Practices What it Preaches
| Guest Speaker
WLSU, When A Church Practices What it Preaches
This podcast is about love, so let’s talk about what the church preaches about love. We say that we should love others as Jesus first loved us. We say we should love our enemies. We say to should love generously, sacrificially even. But do we practice what we preach?
Yes, of course we do. Sometimes. I’ve seen extraordinary love inside the church, and from the church toward the world. I’ve spent most of my life working in the church, and I’ve seen a lot of exemplary love in those years. I’ve also seen us fall short plenty of times. After all, the church is made up of people, and we’re all sinners. So the church will never be perfect, at least not until Jesus comes again to sort it all out.
For now, I wanted to celebrate a time I saw — I felt — the church practice what it preaches.
It all happened in 2022 when I almost died. I was passing through Singapore airport on my way to Vietnam for vacation. But my body had other ideas. My heart stopped. And when I collapsed from my heart stopping, I hit my head and received a pretty serious brain injury. After 59 minutes of CPR, I was rushed to a nearby hospital. It turns out that the hospital closest to Singapore airport is one of the best heart hospitals in the world.
I was in the hospital for two weeks, including several days of complete sedation so the swelling in my brain could go down. When I was discharged from the hospital, I was in a wheelchair. My brain wasn’t quite working right, as it continued to heal. By then, Sherilyn, my spouse, had arrived. We couldn’t go home until the doctors said my brain was well enough healed to travel by air. So we were stuck in Singapore for a few weeks.
Yes, of course we do. Sometimes. I’ve seen extraordinary love inside the church, and from the church toward the world. I’ve spent most of my life working in the church, and I’ve seen a lot of exemplary love in those years. I’ve also seen us fall short plenty of times. After all, the church is made up of people, and we’re all sinners. So the church will never be perfect, at least not until Jesus comes again to sort it all out.
For now, I wanted to celebrate a time I saw — I felt — the church practice what it preaches.
It all happened in 2022 when I almost died. I was passing through Singapore airport on my way to Vietnam for vacation. But my body had other ideas. My heart stopped. And when I collapsed from my heart stopping, I hit my head and received a pretty serious brain injury. After 59 minutes of CPR, I was rushed to a nearby hospital. It turns out that the hospital closest to Singapore airport is one of the best heart hospitals in the world.
I was in the hospital for two weeks, including several days of complete sedation so the swelling in my brain could go down. When I was discharged from the hospital, I was in a wheelchair. My brain wasn’t quite working right, as it continued to heal. By then, Sherilyn, my spouse, had arrived. We couldn’t go home until the doctors said my brain was well enough healed to travel by air. So we were stuck in Singapore for a few weeks.
