My Epic Journey

A little while ago, I wrote about being a balanced person.

I took a break from school for a couple of days and picked up the book, The Importance of Being Foolish, by Brennan Manning. 

The book is a great reminded that Jesus doesn’t call us to a "feel good" Christianity or to a Christianity that is just about TALK.  Instead, Jesus calls us to a life of action.  Action to love and serve the poor and ungodly to fight against the egotism and arrogance of people who talk about God more than do things for God.

In the very first chapter of the book, Manning makes this statement about balance, "A truly balanced person retains a capacity for wonder and the willingness to express it in the very confession of creaturehood, the spontaneous acknowledgment that his is a human being and not a god, a being with limitations who, far from having embraced infinity, is happily and hopelessly engulfed by it."

Quick thoughts:

• When was the last time you just allowed your mind to wonder about the incredibleness of who God is and why He created you? (Psalm 139.13-18)
• When was the last time you reminded yourself of the who you are and who God is?  (Isaiah 6.1-8)
• When was the last time you put that all together and lived a life in harmony with the personality and characteristics of God? (Philippians 2.5-7)

At Grace Point, we thrive as a ministry on our Life Group ministry.  The importance of getting together as a group of peers with a passion to hold each other accountable, breathe life and love to each other and to both cheer and weep with each other cannot be overstated.  I know our students grow deep and are challenged in their respected EPIC Journey (Life) Groups but even more important is Anna and my need for small community interaction.  As our ministry, both Grace Point and EPIC, continues to grow it is necessary to find a place in the Life Group setting.

I was reminded again of this in a reading I was doing for grad work. Clinton and Ohlschlager, in their book, Competent Christian Counseling, state:

Within a community committed to acceptance, education, and appropriate discipline and consequences for conduct unbecoming a disciple of Jesus Christ . . . people are brought to maturity.

The spiritual reparenting required is often best accomplished through cell (life) groups, that assemble for the purpose of Bible study, encouragement, exhortation, worship, and the practice of a series of spiritual disciplines within a circle of accountability (Foster, 1988; Willard, 1998).  In keeping with our giftedness, no member of the believing community is excused from involvement with these groups or the means of personal spiritual growth they seek to establish (Ephesians 4.14-16) (p. 113)

Our Pastor of Discipleship, Tom Houser, does an AMAZING job fostering and training our community of believers on the importance of the Life Group community.  For more information on Tom’s thoughts and guidance check out, http://runinsuchaway.com/.

We just finished our first lesson in the series Attached.  You can see my teaching outline here. My bottom line assignment to my students was this–CUT THE STRINGS!  Let me explain.

We all have STUFF in our life that we are too attached to that drives our emotional world.  Our day’s outlook usually depends on how that STUFF goes.  For example, if we have worked hard studying for a test we can become so ATTACHED to it that if we don’t get the grade we think we deserve our attitude changes.  For parents, we become so attached to our job that if something doesn’t go as planned we often come home bring the baggage of our bad day to our family.  This is all because we are ATTACHED.

Now I am not saying that it isn’t important to study hard for a test or to work hard on a project at work, but if our emotional state is TIED to the outcome of those things (that in all reality really DON’T matter in life) than we have ATTACHED ourselves too tightly.

Instead of ATTACHing ourselves to things that change (such as money, relationship, etc), we need to attach ourselves to the ONE who NEVER changes.

Some of you will have a horrible day today due to the loss of the Buckeyes in the Feista Bowl.  Strings are attached too tightly to things that don’t matter!

I have been wrestling this past weekend over some confusion parents have about our upcoming Summer Camp and some of the things they are saying about behind my back.  Strings are attached to tightly to me over things that don’t really matter!

What I am learning and the challenge I have given our students is that we need to CUT THE STRINGS!  Instead of putting our focus on self and things let’s put it on God!!