Saturday, January 17, 2009
Ready to Reapproach
Interesting first meeting last week. Besides the kids bouncing around, it was a little bit more formal then intended, but these sort of groups take time to gel. At any rate, I am preparing to build a fire for the next meeting and head for the living room with you. It was interesting how we all seemed to steer toward trials and suffering as the main element of growth. I offered the view about others who suffer (outside of Christ) but do not grow nor are changed toward spiritual virtue, thus implying whether suffering in itself has any power to change us. After more discussion, I shared the idea that it is not particularly suffering that changes us, but our response to God in suffering; how we respond in our lives through spiritual habits. Someone immediatedly spoke up and said, "Yeah...it led me to pray so much more in my life at the time." Suffering and how we respond is not the point here. The point is seeing Who causes us to grow, and what we do to be involved in it, how we live for it, whether in suffering or happiness. This is what this group is about. It is an invitation to a journey. I saw the light go off for many of you when we arrived at God being in control of our growth, and how "guilt-oriented" ways of reading the Bible, praying, meditating etc. was futile because it proved that we were attempting to be in control. The latter way is loveless, self-focused, and not relational. For the most part, this sums up much of the "spirituality" we have all known to differing degrees with others, and in churches. Can you identify? Are you ready to re-search, re-approach spirituality in Christ? Where are you in this? What are your spiritual goals? Please share with us.
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For so long it seems like I believed I had to read my Bible, pray, not sin, etc but this was all a selfish attempt to get God's blessing, which usually meant God doing what I wanted. God is not a scale that is set off by every good or bad deed committed. He is sovereign.
ReplyDeleteI am sure God does not want us acting like robots & I am sure that God doesn't get offended if we have had a rough day & go to bed w/o reading our Bible. God is not trying to form us into drones, he's forming us into servants.
The more I read the scriptures I know my Jesus is calling me to a life of vulnerability, simplicity, gentleness, creativity, & love. He's calling me to a life of imagination, something the western church has lost or has not emphasized. We often view imagination as thinking of something that is not real; but it is the opposite--it is connecting the visible to invisible, the eternal to the temporal. You need a creative imagination if you plan to embrace the Kingdom. Peace to you this late night [or early morning depending how you look at life]
love&humility,
andrew
My main spiritual goal right now is to think, as often as possible without it becoming a guilt-inducing burden, about what Jesus's attitude would be toward the things that I encounter daily. The combination of A) reading the Bible with the perspective of learning about the personality and behavior of Christ rather than to gain head knowledge of scriptures and B) fusing those new perspectives gained into the situations I am in during regular everyday life are already changing the way I see and react to the world. To see how Jesus acts and responds gives puts my own life in such a stark contrast with His and gives me a reference to aim for.
ReplyDeletePraying that the fire of a journey starting doesn't fade along the way...