While there's no way to see ahead, there are some realities to be shaped by living out in each moment the kind of story that we want to live. There's no way to control other people's behaviors, or a trillion other potentialities that exist in traffic today, the mood of those we trust, employment rates or extinction-level meteors hurtling toward earth in the not-so-distant future. What we can control is the kind of story I am living today and how it best sets "me"/"us" up for the kind of narrative we can be proud of. The kind of story that aligns with God.
Use this group time this week to encourage and challenge each member, and the group as a whole, to recognize the sacredness of our collective story, how all the parts overlap, and that we have choices to make right now that shape reality for years to come.
"What we do in life echos in eternity" Maximus, Gladiator.
Thaw
- What is something that has stuck with you in this series?
- What is something in this decisions series, no matter how seemingly small or huge in significance, that you would like to take further?
- What most grabbed you from the last message?
Read
- 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
- Thoughts?
Leader note: This text is the often misquoted "God never gives you more than you can handle" passage. Though divergent from the theme of this particular discussion, it might be wise to bear in mind that this text says no such thing. The passage actually speaks of us always having a way out of a particular temptation. We never "must"sin is the point. But it typically gets used to say that our pain isn't anything to get down about...He never, after all, gives us too much to handle. Right? To turn this passage into a phrase that means "God never gives us more difficult circumstances than we can handle by ourselves" essentially makes it so that God protects us from circumstances that would require us asking each other for help. That, of course, contradicts the entire Bible. We, in fact, can't handle much, and need each other. This is why love is the sum of all scripture....we must help each other handle what we can't alone.
- What is a time that you could have chosen a way of out of temptation, but didn't?
- What was a time that you were tempted and couldn't see a way out? Do you see the way out now?
Leader note: Be careful not to let the atmosphere become condemning if someone dares to answer this in a way that reveals some dark stuff. Also keep in mind that the moments leading up to a temptation are how we get out of that temptation before it ever occurs. If a man can't think of how they could have gotten out of having a stripper suddenly performing a lap dance, it's within reason to go back an hour and ask how he might have chosen a different road than the one that leads to the strip club.
- What significance can be found in the fact the the Greek word translated temptation ("peirasmos") can also be translated "tested"?
Leader note: You may consider the end of the Lord's prayer for further conversation on this.
Read
- James 1:2-4
- Thoughts?
Leader note: Same word in 1:2.... peirasmos.
- James sees temptation and testing as a tool. A proving grounds where our metal is forged. What are some examples of this that you have experienced in your own life?
Discuss
- What kinds of temptations are the hardest to resist in our culture, and why? What is at the root of the most potent temptations?
- How does our culture celebrate giving into temptation?
Leader note: Spend just a moment on how temptation has become cute or something to just accept as part of life. Desserts are labeled "decadent" or "sinful". Lingerie is advertised by seductive women with angel wings. Cutting corners at work is presented as "tenacious" as long as it proves profitable. Slanderous gossip is followed up with the phrase "just saying...".
- How does this group's participation in each other's lives serve the idea that our stories matter?
Apply
- How do you determine and even state, ahead of time, what kind of story you want to live?
- How do you make these intentions known so that others can walk with you in encouragement, accountability and reminding?
- How can this group become a place to lay more and more of the trajectory of your story, as it plays out in the moment-to-moment?
- How can others in this group help you define a story that you want to live?
Leader note: This is an invitation for the members of your group, if they have never done so, to lay out some goals. The kind of story we want to live has to be named. It's easy to look back and say " I don't want to become my mom" or "I don't want to mess that up again". It's far more to say "this is the person I feel like I was made to be, so this is where I am heading, and this is how I make decisions about the present so that I stay on this story's path". Vocational, marital, health, intergenerational, sexual, integrity, etc. See if you can help your group take a swing at the kind of story they want to live so that the group, and even the individuals themselves, have something to be accountable to in the weeks, months and years to come. You may want to capture some of this on postcards and use them as book marks, put them in electronic form and highlight them in various ways over 2011. Be creative. Help the story get written and then lived.
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