What does "Zoweh" mean?
If you know the story of the Garden of Eden, you know we ate of the wrong tree and lost Life. Jesus came to restore us back to Life. The word zoé (pronounced ZO-way) is the Greek word for life. When Jesus was teaching, he spoke of a Life with God the life we were created for and the life He came to offer and restore. When sharing with the crowds Jesus said,
A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life (zoé) than they ever dreamed of.
John 10:10 (MSG)
When Zoweh was first created, we were inspired to combine the Greek word zoé and the Hebrew word Yahweh into one: "Zoweh." Zoweh is a quality of life, a certain type of life—a life connected to God that runs with and on God—a life that is sustained, protected and provided for by God. We all are looking for life. We are all made for life. There is a certain smaller kind of life you get when you try to arrange for it yourself and need to keep it up on your own efforts, performance, and accomplishments. Jesus addresses this type of life, too, with an invitation...
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion (performance)? Come to me. Getaway with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
C.S. Lewis on the Zoweh Life and the Bios Life
Few writers had as much impact on Christianity in the 20th Century as C. S. Lewis. His books continue to take readers much further into Christianity than just the facts, truths, or theology of the faith. Lewis invites us into much more—themes of longing, desire, and the invitation to observe and feel, truly experience Life. The contrast between the academic/theologic versus the experiential is like the difference between looking at a whiteboard of aeronautical mathematic formulas that would prove a biplane can fly, versus actually sitting in the two-seater with an experienced pilot, wind and sun in your face, thousands of feet in the air, punching holes in the clouds while chasing a sunset. Which would you believe is more impacting?
Here is a section from Lewis's timeless work Mere Christianity. We found this after God had already taken us several miles into our mission and the name of our ministry "Zoweh." When we read it, the thought occurred, “Oh my goodnessf, C.S. Lewis stole our stuff!” We believe God was affirming our steps and whispering, “See, you're on the right trail.” It is our hope that it captures you as it has us and invites you above the formulas and equations and into a seat in the clouds.
In reality, the difference between Biological life and Spiritual life is so important that I am going to give them two distinct names. The Biological sort which comes to us through nature, and which (like everything else in nature ) is always tending to run down and decay so that it can only be kept up by incessant subsidies from nature in the form of air, water, food, etc., is Bios. The Spiritual life which is in God from all eternity, and which made the whole natural universe, is Zoé [Zoweh]. Bios, has to be sure, a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to Zoweh; but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place, or a statue and a man. A man who changed from having Bios to having Zoweh would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being carved stone to being a real man. And that is precisely what Christianity is about. The world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumour going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to LIFE (Zoweh).
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity