I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:23
“There are two ways of enjoying the past as there are two ways of enjoying a foreign country. One man carries his Englishry abroad with him and brings it home unchanged. Wherever he goes he consorts with other English tourists. By a good hotel he means one that is like an English hotel. He complains of the bad tea where he might have had excellent coffee…
But there is another sort of travelling and another sort of reading. You can eat the local food and drink the local wines, you can share the foreign life, you can begin to see the foreign country as it looks, not to the tourist, but to its inhabitants. You can come home modified, thinking, and feeling as you did not think and feel before.”
C.S. Lewis in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, “De Audiendis Poetis” (late 1950s, first published in 1966) 2-3.
Happy new year from snowy Colorado.
My word for 2022 is “share” and I’m excited about it. It can function as a verb or as a noun. It’s the primary biblical term linked to giving in the New Testament, and it will be fun to explore its use by ancient and modern authors for growing in generosity.
I started the year by exploring its use by my favorite professor, C.S. Lewis. Here he urges people to set aside bias and expectations to appreciate differences. To do this, we “share the foreign life” and in so doing, come home modified as a result.
As I travel a lot and can relate to this, but we don’t have to travel to do it. We can “share” the experiences of others right where God has us in loving, compassionate, and generous ways. It costs time and energy, calls for patience and humility, and transforms us in the process.
So, as the pandemic persists, this may also come into view as drawing near to aid someone or “share” in their suffering. As 2022 begins, consider how you might share (the verb) with others daily from the share (the noun) of spiritual and material blessings you have received from God.