Chris Maxwell's Newsletter

Another Day Along the Way
Friday, February 24, 2006

Another day,
Standing in line to order a sandwich, I watched the man before me hand the servers a piece of paper. I thought, "He's ordering subs for a lot of people. I'll be here forever."

Yes, a selfish moment of self-talk. No, not a good grade in caring for others. It all changed suddenly when I heard his remarks to the cooks behind the counter. The page included an order just for him, all written in detail.

He said, "I can talk but can't hear nothin'."

I thought no longer about the length of time until an arrival of my six-inch-turkey-on-wheat-with-lettuce-tomatoes-pickle-oil-and-oregano. I stopped feeling hunger. I ceased my concern about making it in time for an appointment. I thought about a man who could talk but could not hear.

The cooks worked to read his writing. They loudly tried to ask a few questions while I tried to help in the whole process of ordering, cooking, and receiving. My heart felt love for a deaf man. My mind felt I had learned a lot about myself.

As I ate my turkey sub, I kept thinking about his comment. I heard a Voice placing an "order" to me, saying, "Too many people can talk but refuse to listen."I agreed. I know I can talk but often hear nothin'.

I'm asking for that to change. As we stand in life's line placing orders and offering requests, how is our hearing?

Let us listen. Let us be silent. And listen.

Along the way,Chris Maxwell

Powerful Statement: Are you listening to this?
(Revelation 13:9, The Message)

Another Day Along the Way
Thursday, February 16, 2006


Another day,
Tuesday was Valentine's Day. Many people love it. Many people hate it. Many people ignore it.

I've written poems and stories about love. I've quoted Scriptures. I've heard songs, read books, and watched movies. I've experienced love.

I know what love is. I know what it isn't.

Today, I'll only rob a few of Paul's words from his famous chapter about love. From 1 Corinthians 13, here it is:

- Love is patient.

- Love is kind.


Patient. Kind. P & K: Two key explanations of real love.

Patience and kindness are too often absent in our lives. We want immediate results, and we display our feelings in unkind ways when things go differently than how we prefer.

If we choose to act and live with more kindness and more patience, won't that make everything a little better? I think so.

I think we might love the results.

Along the way,
Chris Maxwell

Powerful Statement: (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, The Message)
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Another Day Along the Way
Friday, February 10, 2006

Another day,
As is my custom, I arrived early for breakfast. While waiting for a friend, while reading, while thinking, the waitress brought me my Orange Juice. I asked, "How has your life changed since we talked?"

She said, "Not much has really changed. I'm still working two jobs and going to school. It is wearing me out."

"What do you really want to do and what can you do to make it happen?," I asked.

Her response was not only what she needed to say. It was what I needed to learn. "Like most people, I worry too much about being safe instead of doing what I really want to do,” she said. “As I nurse I could help so many people. But I would have to quit a job where I know what to expect and how to stay safe. That scares me. One day I plan to take a step of faith and really trust God. Not just say I trust Him, but really trust Him and step out of my other places of comfort. One day."

My friend arrived. We ate breakfast, talked, listened, thought, prayed and left for busy days in our busy worlds. While eating, I thanked Laura for her honesty. She spoke again, giving a short summary of her feelings; I told my friend her words were for us.

Worry. Being safe. Most of us live lives controlled by those words.

Take a step. Trust God. Most of us live with desires to do that.

Today, how can we defeat our worries and take steps? How can we trust God rather than our own assumptions of being safe?

The key is in that word: trust. True trust does something. It doesn't just believe or feel or contend. It acts.

Someone might soon ask me this question: "How has your life changed since we talked?" I pray I have something of eternal value to say.

Along the way,
Chris Maxwell

Powerful Statement: "If we make bigness and efficiency a goal in itself, we may leave the church void of its original calling to be the living workings of the body of Christ before a watching world."
(The Great Giveaway, David E. Fitch)

Another Day Along the Way
Thursday, February 2, 2006

Another day,
"I don't want to go ring-chasing, as I call it; you know, going to a team that's already pretty established and trying to win a ring with them. I want to stay with the Cavs and build a champion."
("Down the Road," LeBron James, ESPN The Magazine, 1/16/06, p. 42)

We rarely hear such confessions these days. We crave victory, pleasure, and success. When they elude us, we run. Not up the court to dunk or toward a conflict to bring solutions. Not playing tough defense or planning a new strategy.

Instead, we run away and change jerseys, choosing to join the team of those who are already champions.

Rather than enduring and improving while experiencing personal character growth, we exit. We fail to realize the lessons of, and life of, endurance.

Do not deny or avoid disappointments and weaknesses. Face them. Analyze them. Learn from them. And work to make things better.

David didn't let Goliath's size provide him a valid excuse for defeat. He won. Paul the Apostle did not let prison and punishment persuade him to leave his new team. He rejoiced and changed the world.

Rather than ring-chasing, let us stay with our "Cavs" and build a champion.

Along the way,
Chris Maxwell

Powerful Statement: Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
(1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV)