We are in full blown launch mode, preparing to open doors at Soul City in the West Loop of Chicago, and it feels like taking off from an Aircraft Carrier. We don’t have a long runway… We need to be in the air in 2 months and that often seems like an impossible time line! However, through all of it, we are learning to depend on God in greater ways BECAUSE we are up against a task that is too difficult for any one of us to complete on our own. One of my favorite speakers is Erwin McManus, and I listened to something that he said yesterday…

“When God allows me to see a problem that is too big for me to solve, I need to realize that God is inviting me to be a part of the solution that He is going to bring.” – Erwin McManus

While listening to this yesterday, it dawned on me that when I am crunched for time, I often do my best work. I realized that the reason that is, is because when time is short, I make better decisions. This bigger principle is that when we have excess of something, we usually tend to waste it, and I am definitely that way… In Psalm 90:12, Moses tells us,

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

So how does this apply to living in your strengths? Well, when we realize that we don’t have much time left, (in the day… before the test… until we miss the opportunity…) we prioritize the things that are most important.  And, when we do those few things that we are strong in, we enable other people to have more room to discover and use and serve in their strengths as well! So as we discussed this as the leadership team of Soul City Church, we could all very easily admit that we didn’t have a lot of time. What we discussed was how to maximize the time we have left, and our answer to that was, if each of us do what only we can do, we will get more done, than if we each try and do everything.

The truth is, if I tried to do everything that Soul City needs, I would:
a) be exhausted
b) be terrible at 95% of the things I do
c) be frustrated
d) cause my relationships to suffer

So, as I begin to try and discover what I need prioritize in my life, what do you need to prioritize in your life… because whether we realize it or not, our days are numbered, our time is limited. What do you need to focus on, because it is what only you can do? And then, and this is more difficult for me, what do I need to let go of because it is not something that only I can do, so I shouldn’t be doing it… What do you need to stop doing?

For a even great discussion of this idea, I would challenge you to invest 30 minutes and watch this video…

As Katie and I have began the journey to join in the start Soul City Church, one of the values of the church that inspired us the most was the commitment of the church to be generous, not just as an organization, but led by us as individuals in leadership.  Even as we have chosen to live on less and give away more than ever before, we find ourselves being surrounded by people who are far more generous than we are and that inspire us to go to even deeper levels of dependence.  It’s not until you see generosity up close, that it becomes more than just “nice,” but actually becomes supernaturally inspiring.  When you realize that people faced the cost of generosity, and chose to give anyways.

The last few weeks, we have been working on an amazing facility that was donated to Soul City Church to use to gather in for our launch in the Fall. Its is an amazing warehouse in the West Loop of Chicago, that is owned by one of the members of Soul City Church, who decided that he wanted to see the Kingdom of God expand int he West Loop and this was the best things to do to accomplish that.  As we have been working on it in preparation for the fall launch, we have had many moments as a team, or just stopping and being in awe of how God has provided, and what an amazing opportunity we have to reach the West Look because of this amazing facility.  But a few days as I was just reflecting on the journey up until now, a thought came to my mind regarding the idea of radical generosity.  I thought, “The donor of this building doesn’t get the money back just because he decided to give it to a church… He still out whatever millions of dollars the building cost!”  And in that moment, generosity was no longer a pretty, flowery, “nice” thing anymore.  It was gritty, difficult and even painful.

Generosity is costly.

I know that seems to be ridiculously obvious statement, but it was truly profound for me.  It changed the way I thought about all the giving that I had seem in my life, that I had done, and that most recently, had been given to Katie and I.  That every gift has a cost that is inherently connected to it.  As we prepare for tomorrow’s Vision  Party, I thought back to our last one, which we had a few weeks ago.  The night went very smoothly, but in all transparency, I was disappointed with the turn out.  However at the end of the night, one of our high school students came up to me and pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket. He looks at me and said, “Here, it’s not a lot, but I want to to go to Soul City.”  I told him thanks, and glanced down at the money, which was now in my hand, and realized that the bills had the number “20″ on them, not “1″ or “5.”  I quickly realized that he had just given me about 85 dollars!  I looked back at him and said, “That IS a lot!” I don’t know about you, but when I was 16 years old, I wasn’t giving eighty-something dollars of my own money to  a church plant.  I could thing of at least 100 things that any high schooler could do with that money, but here he was giving money that he had earned to help advance what God was doing through Soul City Church. There are movies he won’t go to, gas he cant put in his car, and food he wont eat, because a few seats for people in Chicago to sit in and find God, was more important to him.  He looked the cost of generosity in the face, and gave anyways.  Whether it a multi-million building, or money that was saved to buy a video game, there is always a cost to generosity.  Giving out of excess is nice, but true generosity always requires giving up something that is valuable to you.  It takes sacrifice. That’s more than “nice.” That’s radical generosity.  That’s inspiring.  That’s how I want to live.

[To the student that gave (you know who you are), you didn't do it for the recognition, but your gift did not go unnoticed.]

If you would like to look the cost of generosity in the face, and give anyways, please feel free to visit Soul City Church’s blog and read about how you can be a part of the inspiring “Have a Seat – Give a Seat” Campaign to make room for people in two locations in the City of Chicago that need a place to find hope, find love, find God.