Mark 1:21-26, 35-45, 34 "Lord no's."

We're frantic. We're anxious. We believe we're in need of relief. And everyone but ourselves has control of our thinking, agenda and our happiness.

Sounds like everyday is disaster, when you really tease it out. An interesting place to be, considering we live in the safest, plushest society that ever was.

Use this message discussion to see if the group, and its individuals, can see beneath the normal course of a day to find what we're really about. What it is that we think our days our motivated by and headed toward. And then, as a group, be bold enough go after it together.

Thaw

• What most stuck with you from the message from Sunday?
• Why do you think this stuck with you, and how does it matter?
• How is this thing recurrent for you? In other words, how does what stuck with you from Sunday relate to other things you seem to be hearing in other sermons, in others' words or in your own thoughts?

Read

• Mark 1:21-26, 35-45, 34
• Thoughts?
• How does Jesus' focus on what he has set out to do for others look in the short term?

Leader note: The idea here is that, from a short term vantage point, Jesus looks limited, limiting, and insensitive to the greater swath of needs. Help the group see it the way those did in the story, rather than as we do historically, looking back at it with our explanations and justifications comfortably in place. This will help the group understand that things may not fit with a perceived sense of urgency, and yet are still very much rooted in goodness and love.

• How are Christ's pace and focus, and our perception (whether we're troubled by it or not) similar to a parent/child relationship.

Read/Discuss

• What follows are excerpts from the writings of Søren Kierkegaard. Have someone in the group read them aloud and then, as a group, discuss what comes to mind. You may find the depth (and even style) of his writing challenging, so be prepared to read parts of it multiple times. Additionally, discuss how this relates to what we say yes to, what our "ONE THING" is, and whether it's actually one or the divided (divisive) pursuit of whatever. Decisions about what the ONE THING is may not be resolved, but it can stand as a worthy goal for those in the group seeking to make a difference rather than hoping to make a series of points.

The person who wills one thing that is not the Good, he does not truly will one thing. It is a delusion, an illusion, a deception, a self-deception that he wills only one thing. For in his innermost being he is, he is bound to be, double-minded. Therefore the Apostle (James, chapter 1) says, "Purify your hearts ye double-minded", that is, purify your hearts of double-mindedness; in other words, let your heart in truth will only one thing, for therein is the heart's purity .

Is not despair simply double-mindedness? For what is despairing other than to have two wills? For whether the weakling despairs over not being able to wrench himself away from the bad, or whether the brazen one despairs over not being able to tear himself completely away from the Good: they are both double-minded, they both have two wills. Neither of them wills one thing, however desperately they may seem to will it.

In truth to will one thing, then, can only mean to will the Good, because every other object is not a unity; and the will that only wills that object, therefore, must become double-minded. For as the coveted object is, so becomes the coveter. Or would it be possible that a man by willing the evil could will one thing, provided that it was possible for a man so to harden himself as to will nothing but the evil? Is not this evil, like evil persons, in disagreement with itself, divided against itself? Take one such man, separate him from society, shut him up in solitary confinement. Is he not at odds with himself there, just as a poor union between persons of his sort is an association that is ridden with dissension? But a good man, even if he lived in an out-of-the-way corner of the world and never saw any human being, would be at one with himself and at one with all about him because he wills one thing. Each one who in truth would will one thing must be led to will the Good, even though now and then it happens that a man begins by willing one thing that is not in its deepest sense the Good although it may be something quite innocent; and then, little by little, he is changed really in truth to will one thing by willing the Good.