Living a Next Level Life
I was recently in my kitchen cooking dinner and listening to the Andrew Klavan Show, as I normally do on weekends. This just so happened to be his show from Good Friday that I had oddly not listened to. At the tail end of his show, he began to discuss why he believes what he believes. In a nutshell, he talked about how he didn’t know the deepest recesses of theology but that, when all is said and done, some of this doesn’t matter if you don’t have Agape Love. He used the story of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10. As he spoke, I began to cry and think of Michael McIntyre.
Michael uses this story frequently when interacting with people. He asks, “Why was the good Samaritan famous?” “It was because of money.” While this might be an element of the story, this is not the root point that Jesus is making. In the story, if you recall, a man was on his way to Jericho and was attacked and beaten. Unfortunately, both a priest and a Levite passed this man and did nothing to help him. Two men that were intimately aware of the Law of Moses, knew all the rules, and checked every religious box, did nothing to help a man in desperate need. It was a Samaritan man who stepped into the gap for a complete stranger and took care of him as though he was his own family. Samaritans were seen as outcasts by the religious community. They did not know all the rules, nor did they follow them. And yet, it is this man that helped another human being in an hour of distress.
The deeper point of the story occurred to me. Michael and his family are the embodiment of the good Samaritan. This family is independently wealthy and has no reason to give of their time and finances in the way that they do and yet, here we all are. For many of us, life has never been the same since Next Level Experience and thank God it never will be again. Michael and his family have done something that I have unfortunately never experienced before going to Dallas. They have demonstrated what the church is supposed to look like. For two and a half days, they get in the dirt with you. They cry with you, they pray with you, and most importantly, they speak to the person that God called you to be. Once again, this is a room full of total strangers, we have no ties to each other! So why would a wealthy family put their money where their mouth is? They do it because this is what Jesus called them to do and what he is calling his church to do now. We have the cure for spiritual malady, and we are playing small with it.
If I am being transparent, I do not have it all figured out. But what I do know is that slowly but surely, parts of me that I thought were dead have come to life again.
If you feel stuck in your life and know that there is something more, enroll in Next Level Experience.