Chris Maxwell's Newsletter

Thanks to The Harvest Show in South Bend, Indiana, for interviewing Chris Maxwell yesterday. Here is their site: http://www.harvest-tv.com

Another Day Along the Way
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Another day,
The time on my mobile phone didn't lie yesterday. It was correct. The plane flight just took me by surprise.

We arrived in Chicago ten minutes before we took off from South Bend.

Impossible? No. It happened. Educational? Yes. It taught me again about the proper use of time.

Most of you know how that impossible is possible. Flying through time zones can confuse minds like mine as hours shift, allowing 60 minutes to appear or disappear suddenly.

But what did it teach me? As I usually evaluate my own use of time whenever it springs forward, falls back, or leaps, I took time in the air to observe. More than clouds, wind, and crowds. I reviewed myself. I asked, "What would Chris do if given more time?" I asked again, this time changing only one letter and turning it into two: "What should Chris do if given more time?"

My mind recalled a comment a few hours earlier. After my TV interview, a new friend informed me her honest thoughts about what my heavenly Father wanted me to hear. She prayed for me and sent me toward the airport. Her words stayed, as if time had stopped. Those words fit here. They reinforced what our Maker can allow us to do. In the time we have, let us ask, "What should we do if given more time?" After answering, we can choose to spend the time we have by doing what matters most. Not always what feels best or rewards us the most. But what matters most. Not just a "can do" or a "want to." A "should do."

Look at the time. Look at your life. How are we spending these moments?

Along the way, Chris Maxwell

Prayer Surrendered: Psalm 51:10 (The Message)
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.

Another Day Along the Way
Monday, November 28, 2005

Another day,
Notre Dame is not my favorite team. That is actually putting it nicely-something I should try to do more often.

But here I am. Typing and thinking and praying and shivering. Enjoying cold air in South Bend, Indiana. What did I see today? The campus of Notre Dame.

Though I'm not part of the fighting Irish, their story is a great story. Defeats and victories. Customs and rituals. History and modernity. Cold weather and nice smiles. Intelligence and humor. Saints and sinners. Dead tradition and living dreams. A lot like life, isn't it?

Solid traditions become distorted and damaged. Firm beliefs become moveable and unneeded. Players come and players go. Still, hopes can remain. If we choose to let them.

Today, what is your hope? What would you like to accomplish before 2005 sounds its closing buzzer? How do you hope to win the game of 2006, and what can you begin doing now to prepare for a championship in life?

Fans and students talked to me today. On Tuesday, I'll be interviewed so I can do the talking. Each of us, whatever the weather and wherever we land, are telling much through our lives.

I pray we bring encouragement to others. That it something each of us should try to do more often.

Isn't it?

Along the way,Chris Maxwell

Powerful Statement: (Philemon 1:7, NIV)
Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

Another Day Along the Way
Thursday, November 17, 2005

Another day,
We count time. As I look today at a friend's years on earth, I ask, "Is that many years or a few?"

Usually the "many" and the "few" rotate. They take turns during this life trip. A class in school appears to hit pause for the clock on the wall. A conversation with a lover lasts sixty-three minutes but feels like five. A game's final two minutes travel slowly for the team leading; the race runs rapidly for the team behind.

Waiting in line, eating a delicious meal, jammed in traffic, saying goodbye to a friend. Slowly. Quickly. Life.

For Mac, the years hurried and paused. His final years felt, to him, like a marathon. Too slow. No end in sight.

I've known only a small portion of Mac's life. I've only known him since he became homeless. His years with families and houses and normal jobs were long before I met him.

But, as I fed him and cleaned him last week just two days before he died, I wanted to make his last few days count. We prayed, we read, we talked. My friends helped baptize him in the hospice room where sinks and napkins can have spiritual meanings after all.

The last time Mac felt like talking about his life and his choices, he reminded me of my life. He told me not to make his mistakes. I struggled to understand his words as he spoke through a mouth covered with cancer and blood. But I heard much. How much of it will I apply?

A homeless man like Mac can remind us of how to live. Now that his spirit has left this planet, I pray I apply his sermon.

I pray my time will count.

Along the way,
Chris Maxwell

Powerful Statement: (Psalm 146:3, NIV)
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

Another Day Along the Way
Friday, November 11, 2005

Another day,
Wednesday was the eighth anniversary of Damon Hill's liver transplant. He would not be alive today if he had not received that transplant.

I wonder how many of us will be spiritually alive eight years from now if we do not receive a spiritual liver transplant. For us to play this game, for us to score, for us to win, for us to defeat the foe, it is time for new livers to give us life.

Physically, the liver is the largest organ in the body. Located in the upper right side of the abdomen underneath the lower ribcage, it acts as a filter to remove toxins (harmful, damaging, destructive substances) and waste products from the blood. Healthy livers filter the blood at a rate of 1.5 quarts per minute. Add it up and that equals 540 gallons of blood per day and over 13 million gallons in a lifetime.

The liver stores nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and iron. It helps synthesize and manage levels of chemicals and proteins such as sugars, hormones and cholesterol. It also helps the body digest food by producing bile which is stored in the gallbladder.

Think about the liver's functions and relate them to our spiritual bodies:
1. Stores and revives energy and vitamins
2. Regulates blood flow
3. Removes damage
4. Monitors balance
5. Produces heat

Our religious, habitual, dull, old livers can easily die. We need a new liver of life. It might be time for the transplant. As we receive and adjust to that change, we can have new energy, a better balance, and see the damage destroyed. A healthy liver changes appearance on the outside because the inner workings of the body have been made to work again. Health is restored and protected by the liver.

Damon received a new liver. He is alive and well.

Walter Payton, one of the best running backs in football history, needed a new liver. He could not get one because of other health issues. So, he died. Born July 25, 1954 in Columbia, Mississippi, and died November 1, 1999 in Barrington, Illinois, Payton spent thirteen years with the Chicago Bears. In February 1999, Payton announced that he had a rare liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis. Unable to receive a liver transplant because of bile duct cancer, Payton died in his home. After breaking Payton's career rushing record in 2002, Emmitt Smith tearfully paid tribute to Walter, saying that Payton had taught him how to conduct himself on and off the field.

If you are reading this, you are alive. But not all of us are spiritually well. We need to be made new.

Receive the liver God provides today to give us life. Let energy and health be revived. Let the flow of life's circulation be regulated. Let damage be removed. Let duties and expectations and assignments and experiences be balanced. Let warmth be produced again. A new spiritual liver can do that.

As we live with purpose and pursue victories, let us be healthy players in this game of life. Our Owner is guiding us toward new, amazing victories. He is giving us livers so we can live.

How do we get this new spiritual liver? "Ask and you shall receive," says the Liver Giver.

Receive a spiritual liver. And become a "liver" (one alive) again.

Along the way,
Chris Maxwell

Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before.
(Alexander Graham Bell)