Louie Giglio - Rails to Trails (09/24/2025)
We’re not counting 2020 as a loss. I want to say it again: we are not counting 2020 as a loss, not as a wipeout, not as a write-off-the-board year. God is alive, the church is alive, and we can do what God wants us to do right here and right now. I believe that in the rest of this year, in the months ahead, God will do great things in His people, and we’re coming under the banner of everybody.
See, pastors have been in a little bit of a jam because pastors like to count the numbers, right? How many did we have today? It’s been hard to count the numbers for the last few months. But fortunately, in the kingdom of God, it’s not all about the numbers. It is about the numbers, but it’s also about the names. That’s what we see in the earliest days of the church. In fact, in the very first days of the church, it was about the numbers and it was about the names; it was mostly about everybody. So, that’s what we’re aiming for in these last few months of the year, going into the new year ahead: that everybody will find a place, everybody will find a circle, and everybody will find their role in God’s family and in God’s story.
We see it at the very beginning: the church is born in Acts, chapter two. We sing the song, «And the church of Christ was born, and the Spirit lit the flame.» That’s what happened right in Acts, chapter two. Coming down to the end of the chapter, we started this «everybody» journey by looking at this text, but I want to come back to it again. It says, «They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.» Everyone—there’s our word, so circle that—everyone was filled with awe. Don’t you love that?
It wasn’t like the super spiritual core got it or the professional Christians got it; everybody in the church was dumbfounded at what God was doing. Everybody was in awe. So when God shows up, when God is in the midst, it’s not just a few people who get it; when God is in the midst, people are amazed at who He is and what He does. They were all in awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were being done by the apostles. All the believers—there’s our phrase again—were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. That’s how you survive a year like this: it’s through the community of faith. Somebody has a need, and other people lean in. Someone has an abundance; they share with someone who has less. Someone with less knows they can count on someone else because in this house, we bear one another’s burdens. We’re following a Jesus who carried all of our burdens to Calvary.
So, we come in the door looking for ways to come alongside other people, to put our arm around other people, to understand other people, and to lift them up so that in another time, in another season, they can lift somebody else up. We weep with those who weep, and we rejoice with those who rejoice; we’re a family together, all one with everything in common. Then, down in verse 46, every day—so this was an all-the-time thing—they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes, ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily. Isn’t this amazing? Those who were being saved—somebody got saved every single day.
So, people ask all the time: is church about the numbers, or is it really about the names? Well, it’s about the numbers, because right above this paragraph, 3,000 people got saved. The text didn’t say, «and a bunch of people got saved» or «a lot of people got saved»; it said exactly 3,000 people got saved that day. But immediately, those people were finding themselves sharing meals together, and you don’t eat with people you don’t know their names. Is church about multiplication? Is it about just adding to our tribe, or is it about maturity and growing deeper in our faith? The answer is yes: numbers, names, multiplication, maturity—yes, that is what church looks like. So we’ve got 3,000 people getting saved and more coming every single day, but that’s okay because we’ve got a lot of circles for people to get in. And when they get in a circle, they pray together, they praise together, they listen to the teaching together, they share fellowship together, and they share needs together. That’s church: it’s everybody in their place, and it’s people coming to know Jesus every single day.
Would you be willing, as Passion City Church, to pray, «Lord, we want somebody to get saved, or some bodies to get saved every day for the rest of 2020»? We want that to be the 2020 story. Well, do you remember 2020? And somebody says, «Oh, I remember 2020. That’s the year I got saved.» You remember 2020 and all the crazy? «Oh, I remember the crazy. That’s when I got saved. That’s when I met Jesus. That’s when my story turned around.» And here’s what was powerful about this moment: everybody in this paragraph had a recent encounter with Jesus. Everybody. There’s no 30-year-old faith in here—nothing wrong with 30-year-old faith; I have that—but everybody in this paragraph had the memory fresh in their minds that Jesus is real. That band of followers in the upper room, touched by the Holy Spirit, Peter preaches this message, 3,000 people got saved—they just got saved. A lot of these people just got saved a couple of weeks ago, and now every single week, their friend, their neighbor, their co-worker is getting saved. It’s fresh encounters with Jesus everywhere you turn.
I was on my bike the other day, and there’s a trail here in the Atlanta area that goes all the way to Alabama. For some reason, if you want to ride your bike to Alabama, you can do that—100 miles worth. It used to be a railroad track that was abandoned, but then it was rehabbed by this beautiful vision called Rails to Trails. Now you can ride through the woods, ride over these bridges, and ride over these ravines and creeks, enjoying this scenery that, unless you were a train, you’ve never seen before. Abandoned tracks are now beautiful trails, and there are tons of runners, walkers, families, and bikers out there enjoying the beauty of what is because someone had the vision to turn the abandoned rails into beautiful, useful trails. That is what the church is really all аbout: it’s stories that were broken down and abandoned that got rehabbed by the power of God, and instantly, people who were just rails of no value are now trails that people can come along to find the Lord, find truth, and find grace.
It’s you and me moving from being a rail to a trail. And as soon as that happens, we have a story to tell, and as soon as we tell that story, Jesus is known in the community; He’s known in the city, and revival comes to the world. Everybody counts in the story. The word is true; it’s enough. The cross is a finished work; the empty tomb is proof—it’s resurrection power. The word, the cross, and the tomb are enough for everybody to be saved and transformed, but the way people hear about the word, hear about the cross, and hear about the empty tomb is on a trail called you and me. It’s a life that has a recent story, a recent encounter. It was just a little while ago I got saved; it was just a little while ago God worked in my life; it was just a little while ago that I had another encounter with Jesus. It’s fresh in my life, and therefore, my personal transformation paves the trail for other people to hear the gospel story of Jesus. And this gospel is for everyone.
Last week, we talked about John 9 and this man born blind, and we turn a few pages back in John, chapter four, and we find another person who is an unlikely everybody who got invited into the story of God. As soon as they did, they became an agent of change in their world. That was one of our ten everybody statements last week: everybody can be changed and be an agent of change. Everybody can. The least likely person can be changed by the power of God and can become an agent of change for the people around them. We unpacked that by saying everybody can be raised, changed, and transformed by resurrection power to become an agent of God’s kingdom plans to see others changed for His glory. Do you believe that’s true, even of that family member of yours, even of that co-worker of yours, of that neighbor of yours? Everybody can be changed and be an agent of change.
We see that in this very familiar story, those of us in church, found in John 4. If you’re joining in at Passion City today and you don’t know a lot about church and you don’t know a lot about the Bible, you’re going to be pumped that this is the Jesus that we’re celebrating today. It says in chapter 4, verse 1, «The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John.» Although, in fact, it was not Jesus who was baptizing but his disciples. Not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. Now, I just looked at that verse all week, and I’m like: why is that even in the Bible? I mean, why do we even need to know that? Why didn’t I just start this talk at verse 2? That’s like, highlight that—no, I doubt anybody has got a big circle around that and said, «Dr. Stanley preached on this in 1999, and it changed my life.» No, I think it’s in there so that we can see that Jesus is trying to operate in kingdom power and authority in a mindset of people who are really amazing at missing the point.
What is the dilemma? Oh my goodness, Jesus is baptizing more people than John! Did you hear about it? You know, John’s First Baptist Church—he was the first one. First Baptist, first here. Then Jesus comes along, Second Baptist Church. Well, hello? Second Baptist Church is baptizing more people than First Baptist Church. How is that working? How do you feel about that? Well, what do you think about that? Well, I heard they were, and I heard they weren’t, and I don’t know why they are. Well, they probably baptized them more because they’re not preaching the real gospel. I don’t know—they’re preaching a rural gospel—we’re not really sure. And Jesus is God in human flesh here to transform humanity. He is about to do a massive revolutionary work in a town that nobody would have counted in to the kingdom of God, and all the people can do is be frustrated about the division possibly that’s going to come because First Baptists and Second Baptists are going to split up now and go their separate ways. Small-minded thinking always misses the bigness of the kingdom of God in the power of God that is available to change cities, people, and nations. That’s what we need to focus on right now.
So, we pick up the story in the middle of the Pharisees missing the point in verse 3. When the Lord learned of this, He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. A little geography: He’s down south in Judea; now He’s going back to His base of operations, north to Galilee. So, He’s got a good day’s journey or so to get from Judea to Galilee, and He’s on the way. Now, Jesus had to go through Samaria, so He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour, so it’s 12 in the afternoon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, «Will you give me a drink?» His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to Him, «You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?» For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
And Jesus answered her, «If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.» Now, already culturally, Jesus has just blown everything up. As you may know, and as we see in the text, the Jewish people and Samaritan people were racially divided, and you can trace the history all the way back to the Assyrian conquest of this land. The Samaritans, therefore, became people that really weren’t fully anything. They were half Jew, half something else. They weren’t fully Arab and gaining those rights in this culture, nor were they fully Jewish. The animosity historically between the Samaritans and the Jews would literally keep them apart. So here’s Jesus; He has a choice to make on this day. I got to go solve this baptism and whose disciples are greater questions, so I need to work that out. I’ve got to go from Judea up to Galilee, but in between where I am and where I’m going is Samaria. My choice today is I either go around Samaria and avoid the Samaritans or go right through the middle of Samaria and show God’s value—He’s operating on a higher plane than human thinking. What do you think Jesus chose to do? He could have skirted the issue or walked right into the issue. What do you think Jesus chose to do? He said, «I’m going right to Sychar, and I’m going right to that well; that’s where I’m going to settle down at high noon.»
So we see right in the middle of the text that Jesus is breaking down walls; He’s breaking down barriers. He’s moving through human institutions and human thinking to say, «God’s here, operating on a whole different wavelength with a whole new mindset for what can be and what can happen.» And He’s going to show us that a few verses later, but He says to the woman, «You would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.» She says in verse 11, «You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?» To which Jesus could have answered, «Yes, as a matter of fact, I am greater than Jacob and his sons and all of us—certainly greater than them and their flocks.» Yes, the answer is, «Yes, I’m greater than Jacob.» But He answers this way: «Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never thirst.» What a promise! What a bold statement! Indeed, «The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.»
And the woman said, «Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.» And then Jesus invites her into the story. He says, «Okay, I’d love to do that. There’s a miracle possibility right here.» But notice what Jesus did first: He walked right through the cultural barriers. First, He walked right through the racial barriers. First, He walked right through the barriers of a man even valuing a woman in a context like this, and then He walked right through all the barriers of possibility and says, «I’d love to just go get your husband. Bring him back, and as soon as you bring your husband back, I’ll explain the whole thing about the living water, and we’ll see a miracle happen right here. It’s possible that your life can change right here today.»
Why did He say that? Did He want to make the woman feel horrible and worse than she already did? No, He just wanted to address the fact that there were real issues going on in her heart that He couldn’t just blow by those issues. So He said, «Go get your husband. Bring your husband back.» And she said, «Sir, uh, okay, I can do that, but I don’t have a husband, so can we just talk about the living water?» And He said, «Right, you don’t have a husband. Exactly. But you have had five husbands, and that guy you’re with right now, he’s not your husband.» Can you imagine just that moment, the look on her face? She was pretty quick; she said, «Sir, I can see and tell that you’re a prophet.» And then very quickly, she shifted the conversation. «You, my people, the Samaritans, we worship this mountain,» she would point to Mount Gerizim. «We worship over here; your people, the Jews, they worship in Jerusalem. Which is right? Is it our mountain or your mountain? I mean, can you—you seem like you’re pretty sharp, guys, so can you explain that one to me? Because that seems to be the biggest issue going on right now.»
And Jesus said, «Well, I will talk about that for a moment. Let me explain it to you like this.» He says in verse 22, «You Samaritans worship what you know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.» Check this out; what a powerful statement: «Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.»
Now, can you just notice what Jesus did here? He didn’t belittle being a Samaritan, and He didn’t belittle being a Jew. He said, «You’re Samaritans, and you worship over here; the Jews worship over there. But let me elevate now that both Samaritans and Jews can rise into a brand new relationship with God, where the most important thing about us now is spirit. It’s one spirit, one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is overall and in all and through all. Now, by the spirit, we all have the possibility to worship the one true living God.» God is elevating the conversation; He’s not erasing the beauty of our diversity; He’s just lifting us up into the unity of the spirit—into a true worshiping family of God. Isn’t that awesome and beautiful? How, in one moment and in the relationship that He’s developing with this Samaritan woman, He’s elevating all of us to the highest possible place.
Then notice what she says: «I know the Messiah called Christ is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.» So, in other words, «I don’t know what you’re talking about; you hit it on the head with my five former husbands and the dude I’m with now, but that whole last part? I didn’t really get that. But I know there’s someone called Messiah coming—Christ is coming, and when He gets here, He’ll be able to work it all out for us.» Then Jesus said, «Okay, I’ve been walking since before dawn, and I’m teeing up a pretty great moment right here, so I’m just going to come straight out with it,» and He says to the woman, «I who speak to you am He.»
Whoa! The Messiah has come—not just in general, but to her, not just to the world, but to Sychar. The name of the town means burden; that means Christ has arrived where there’s a burden of heart. Her burden of heart—we don’t know the full story; we don’t know the background. We just know five times she struck out at marriage, and this sixth one doesn’t look fantastic. We don’t know the history; we don’t know the pain; we don’t know all the loss; we don’t know all the wounds; we don’t know all the implications and the circumstances. We just know that the Messiah has come; promise has come to the burden. God has arrived at the burden; God has arrived in the place where there’s pain, and He said, «There’s water you can drink from, and when you drink from this water, it’s going to do what none of those guys did and what no other guy can do and what nothing on planet earth can do. This water is going to do something inside of you that you’ve never seen before.»
And something happened. We don’t know; I don’t think we have the full unpacked version of what went down, but what we do see in verse 27 is just then, His disciples returned. Isn’t this great? They missed it! I mean, they could have been there, but no, we got to go to Wendy’s and get some food. So now they’re just getting back. They’re going down for a Whataburger, going down for whatever the flavor of the day was. And now they just get back, and they were surprised to find Him talking with a woman, but no one asked, «What do you want?» or «Why are you talking with her?»
And then look at verse 28—talk about trails to rails: then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, «Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?» And they came out of the town and made their way toward Jesus. Now that lets me know that Jesus is operating in what’s on the opposite page in my text at the end of chapter three—that God didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Now that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t take seriously our problems; Jesus immediately identified the problem, but then He identified Himself as the solution, and He did it in such a way that the woman wanted to go tell everybody in the town to come see the guy who told me everything I ever did. That is not the way most invitations to God work. «Oh, you need to come to church or come to this meeting or come to the Lord because when you do, He’ll tell you everything you’ve ever done. He’ll tell you everything no one else knows. He’ll tell you everything that’s being hidden behind the curtain; He’ll tell everybody all your stuff. Come to Him; this is going to be amazing.» And we were like, «No, I think I’m good.»
But He did it in such a way that even though He knew everything, the look on His face was, «I still got a plan for you.» Though He knew everything, the look on His face wasn’t, «I’m here to judge you.» It was, «I’m here to free you.» Though He knew everything, it wasn’t, «I’m here to condemn you.» It was, «I’m here to be condemned for you; I’m here to bring you life and bring you to life.»
Now we’re going to have to deal with the issue, but we’re dealing with it in the context that you matter to God and you matter to me. You might be a woman, and maybe you’ve been counted out in this culture. You might be a loser in the community, and nobody sees a vision or a plan for you. You might be somebody that I’m supposed to have racial tension with, but you know what? There’s a higher value going on, a bigger kingdom going on. You’re a somebody created by God, and I’m the Messiah. I’m going to give my life for you. And her story—she goes to town. What does she say? «I’ve just met Jesus. He’s the fulfillment of the law and prophets. He’s Moses, and He is Isaiah and Elijah all in one. He’s phenomenal. He explained to me that He’s going to give His life for the sins of the world; He’s going to be a great atonement. He’s going to be buried, go in the depths of the earth, come back from the grave; He is going to be the risen Son of God, be seated in the highest; He’s going to raise us up with Him. We’re going to get a new identity in Christ; we’re going to be holy and not sinners; we’re going to be victorious and not victims; it’s going to be amazing.»
And then there’s a revelation—it’s kind of complicated—but He worked it all out for me. Here’s the diagram: here’s how it’s all going to happen. «Hey, you guys got to come here, this guy!» No! Her whole testimony: «Come see a guy who told me everything I’ve ever done. I think this guy’s the Christ!» And they went; the town went. She instantly—not next month, not after the training, not five years from now when she was spiritually mature enough—she instantly went from being an abandoned train track to being a trail that people could go on to find the beauty in the grace of Almighty God. She went from rails to trails just like that. Same as Acts 2. She had a fresh encounter with Jesus, and immediately, she’s inviting people to come closer to Him. That’s how life works!
I saw just recently this powerful statement: your ministry is found where you’ve been broken. Your testimony is found where you’ve been restored. See, so many Christians—I’ve met so many Christians over my life—I don’t know what my calling is; I don’t know how God wants to use me. I don’t know what my role is in being a part of His story to the world. It’s probably really closely linked to wherever your brokenness was. Do you think this woman’s ministry was you think after this encounter that she went from town to town and did seminars on the Old Testament prophets? No! Her ministry was she went village to village and found women who felt like they’d been trampled by life and said to them, «I know it; you think that you don’t have a chance, but you do, because there’s a man named Jesus. I met Him, and He turned my life around.» It’s in our brokenness that we find our ministry many times. We say, «Man, I just want to skip over that part; God got me through it, but I just want to skip over it.» And God’s saying, «No, that’s where the power is for you in your testimony—how God restored you—and that’s where God wants to use you.»
I believe that was the story she was telling: «He told me everything I’ve ever done.» I believe people were starting to figure out that something on her countenance had changed; something in her life had changed. It gets us to that other «everybody» statement: everybody is part of the gospel story, not just the evangelists, not just the guys speaking at the meetings, not just people who got the training; everybody. We unpacked it this way: everybody has a story of grace to tell; everybody who’s met Jesus has a story of grace to tell and is thus responsible for taking the name of Jesus to everybody on earth, no matter the cost.
Notice what happened in verse 39: many of the Samaritans from that town called Burden believed in Jesus. Talk about a miracle! We got Samaritans putting their faith in a Jewish guy—a miracle! We’re realizing this guy is something special. They believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony. Again, here’s the testimony: «He told me everything I ever did.» Doesn’t this sort of take the steam out of that big argument, «I don’t know how to share my faith; I’m not a real outgoing person. I’m not really gregarious; I’m not good at starting conversations with strangers; I don’t know how to explain everything about the faith; I don’t know how to tell people about the finished work of Jesus.» That’s not really my bag. She got the whole town out there and a bunch of people saved, and her whole story was, «He told me everything I ever did.»
All you need is a rails-to-trail story, and people are going to start moving toward Jesus. All you need is, «I was broken, but He restored me,» and you’re going to start seeing people move on that trail toward Jesus. But then it gets even better than that. So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. In other words, they had a spontaneous two-day revival, and because of His words—Jesus' words—many more became believers. They said to the woman, «We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.» Wow! How simple! If we just see the moment and are willing to step in and share our story of what Christ has done for us.
I hope you’re not in church today going, «Well, I don’t really have a blow-up story. I wasn’t married five times like this poor lady and not living with a guy. Seems like she would have got it after the fourth time—or at least the fifth time, huh? Don’t you think? I come from a good family; we’ve always been in church. We really didn’t have any big blow-ups, and I went to Sunday school and Bible study, and now I’m here. My family’s in church, and we’re all good, so we really don’t have like a big, you know, like a big story to tell.»
I don’t guess I’m like, «Are you kidding me? There’s no brokenness in your family? There’s no valley you went through? There’s no pain that you went through? There’s no hardship that you went through? There’s nothing that God saved you from and redeemed you from and carried you through that’s going to allow you to pave a roadway for people to God?»
I met a guy this week, and he’s an incredible man; he has a lot of cultural influence around the world. He said, «I just want to thank you. God used you in a massive way to make a huge difference in my life, and I’m so glad to meet you and get to tell you that in person.» I’m like, «Okay, thank you so much.» And I’m like, «I don’t know. Was it a message? You know, one of my phenomenal messages that I preached? One of my amazing books that I wrote? Some incredible conference that our team was able to put on? What phenomenal thing did I do that God really used to touch your life?»
He said, «You know what it was? It was when you talked out loud from a platform about your own battle with depression and anxiety. God used that in the most profound way to touch and change my life.» See, if you survive rehab and God brought you out on the other side, He didn’t do that so that you could never talk about it; He did that because people who are in rehab can’t fully relate to people who have squeaky-clean Christian church lives and don’t know what it’s like to hold on by their fingernails to hope in the darkness of night. But when you walk in and say, «I’ve been down there, and I came out on the other side, and I’m here to tell you about it,» people go, «Okay, maybe there’s hope for me.»
If your abandoned tracks have become a trail, I believe I can get on that trail, and we see the power of that, the power of understanding that I have a story to tell. I don’t have to be the greatest evangelist of all time; I just have to tell my story and believe that it’s in that story the gospel can move and the gospel can come. Acts 2—people were telling fresh stories. They were telling fresh stories; they were telling Spirit stories, fellowship stories, worship stories, «God met a need» stories, «God did a miracle» stories. They all had something going on in their relationship with God to share, and that’s what God wants to do right now.
It’s harvest time—not just 2020 shake-up. It’s been harvest time since Jesus met this woman at the well. He even said so when His guys came back, and they said, «Are you hungry?» And Jesus replied to them, «My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields; they are ripe for harvest. Even now, the reaper draws his wages; even now, we harvest the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.»
What was Jesus saying? He was saying harvest time is now. The question is simply: do we have a burden for the people around us and a willingness to become a trail that people can come on so that we can say what the church has said since day one: «Every single day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.» Not just one got saved. Those who were being saved; every day the number went up; more names were in the circle every day. Multiplication happened so that there were more people to be matured in the community of faith.
I wonder if we can say that the way we know Passion City Church has a future is by asking and answering the question: when is the last time you prayed fervently for somebody who was lost and saw their eyes opened and saw them come to faith in Jesus? When is the last time you actually were there in the mix and in the conversation, when someone put their faith in Jesus? When is the last time you were the one sitting across the table with a new believer, and you were the next step plan for them to open the pages of Scripture and discover who Jesus was? And if the gap is big, then our future is small.
The church stalls when our love for Jesus and for others grows stale. What we see in the pages and in the annals is that when the church was flourishing, the gospel was in the air. Shelley and I, this summer, were in Mexico, and we were sitting on the terrace of our hotel in the middle of a sunny summer day, looking at the ocean. All of a sudden, it looked like it was snowing outside. I mean, as big as this auditorium: just a cloud of snowflakes coming by. Not too long later, we discovered they were all coming from that tree right there. It’s a tree that we knew well; we enjoyed its flowers and seasons. We walked by it many, many times, but today it was doing something—creating a snowstorm, if you will.
We’re sitting there, and these little flakes are flying everywhere, and the tree was pretty good ways away from us, but they’re actually wafting up onto our terrace. I catch one in my hand, and I come to find out it’s an African tulip tree. It has these radiant red-orange flowers in season, but then it creates and develops these stunning pods. Eventually, they come to be the size of a really large banana, and they get hard and crusty. Eventually, they crack, and when they crack, they have a little lid resting on the inside.
So imagine the pod cracks open—it’s big enough to have this on the inside, and this is acting as a little vent or valance, if you will, which is kind of turning in the wind as the pod opens. Underneath this are thousands of seedlings, and the seedlings look like this. They’re little tiny translucent circles about the size of a penny, and inside every one is a little slice of the tulip tree. I mean, we’re talking micro-thin—so thin that, after a moment, the little translucent carrier begins to disintegrate in the palm of your hand, but it’s carrying in the wind everything necessary for another African tulip tree to be born. All the DNA, all the sequencing, all the potential, all the future, all the beauty—all the future harvest is in that little sliver of the tree, which, interestingly, is shaped like a heart because the African tulip tree loves you and would love to come and plant outside your window or in your garden or in your yard or across the way.
Here we are, the middle of summer, blazing hot ocean view, and a massive snowstorm happening. Under the right conditions, thousands and thousands of these little snowflakes of loving hope and potential are being released out into the wild. I thought, «Oh, dear God.» I walked down to the base of that tree when I figured out what was going on, and I picked up one of these little lids that had fallen to the ground. I brought it home and put it in my Bible as a reminder that Jesus is saying, «It’s harvest time; it’s time for the harvest.»
A lot of work has been done, but it’s time for the harvest. Prayers have been prayed; it’s time for the harvest. You don’t know what has gone on in the past. You don’t know what burden your neighbor is carrying. You don’t know how ready they are. You don’t know that the conversation at the well tomorrow may be a game changer for them in an entire town. You don’t know God can reconcile; He can reconcile races, He can reconcile people, He can reconcile cities, He can reconcile families. He can put back together things that are broken, and it’s time for harvest to come. It’s time for rails to become trails; it’s time for everybody to understand I am a carrier of the gospel story of Jesus to the world, and if I cease to do that, the church will cease.