"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters." - Aslan at the beginning of creation of Narnia (C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew)

The first church I went to had an acronym for the word home. The four letters were Hallelujah, Outreach, Mobilize, Engage--which represented worship (loving God), loving others, moving out strategically and engaging or speaking to others. I never really gave it a second thought, but obviously it had an impact as I can remember it nearly eight years after I went to that church.

Who knew that a line from a children's fantasy story would tie so neatly into what I thought was a cheesy, overplayed theme for a church.

The journey from "awake" to "speak" by way of "love" and "think" correlates directly to our growth as Christians. At the moment we receive salvation in Christ, we are woken up from what seems to be an eternal sleep if the Lion of Judah did not use His own voice to call us to Him.

Immediately, we begin to love the Lord. We love Him through our worship, worship that not only occurs on Sunday for the first 15 to 45 minutes of whatever church service we attend, but a worship that we live out. It's a love that we live and display to all of those around us. 

However, our love of God can only go so deep through worship. At some point we have to go deeper, we have to begin to think and meditate on the Word of God and come to a full understanding of who He is and what He stands for. When our worship is grown through our understanding of Him and how His Holy Spirit moves in and through us, our senses are heightened and we are now more awake than ever.

But what next? A life devoted to worship and study of the Word is honorable and many people live what they feel is a fulfilled life based on awake, love and think. However, there was one more thing that Aslan called the Narnians to do. It was to speak. Very similar to some of the final words that Jesus spoke to His disciples: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)

We mostly keep to ourselves 'round here
No sense in rockin' the boat 'round here
We watch you dance into hell 'round here
It's time we speak His mind 'round here

The final thing we need to do to fulfill the mission Christ called us to is speak. 

In his song "Speak," from the album of the same name, Jimmy Needham laid it down perfectly for us. He says it simply:

So open your mouth, open it wide
Stop singin' songs for a minute tonight
You can love with your hands, you can love with your deeds
How will they know if we won't even speak?

Speaking is the last step. We always want to love first and ensure our agenda aligns with God's, but we can't speak without first thinking about what we are going to say. And of course, you can't do anything if you are asleep. So awake, love, think and speak. "Don't be afraid! Speak out! Don't be silent!" (Acts 18:9)