SOTAOL

Art by Janet Guertin

Keep the art submissions coming. If we're made in the image of a Creator....then creativity is our nature. It's fear of harsh judgment that keeps that reality far from us.



This week we're diving a little deeper into the nature of life as a student of living. This entails to a large degree our system of belief, and disbelief. The way we see the world and God's role in it, as well as our own. Spend time as group being free to discuss what you believe, what's required of us to be loved, and how little is asked of us to be included on this extraordinary journey of meaning.


Thaw

• What stories or experiences do you come back to when you think of your faith and what it's rooted in?

Read

• John 9:1-38
• Thoughts?
• Consider those in this scene. Religious leaders with proper doctrine and belief, and then people who relied on them to explain things. What is Christ teaching by healing a blind man who had no answers but a new ability to see?

Leader note: If someone answers that the story teaches "seeing Jesus" is all that matters, have them explain why that matters in our day-to-day. The pharisees saw him. Arguably not the way they were supposed to, but far more tangibly than any of us could now. Make sure the blind man isn't simply credited with sight, as those gazing on Jesus was magic. Dig into what this man's seeing, especially in his relative ignorance, can teach us.

Discuss

• Discuss these two statements and find examples for them in your life.

You don’t have to understand everything to believe in something. 

In the midst of the unexplainable, don’t lose sight of what’s undeniable. 

• How can these statements help you to be a more helpful, encouraging, positive person of faith for others?

Leader note: As opposed to a person of faith who is rigid, overconfident, over explanatory and, however accidentally, just like the pharisees Jesus told were blinder than the blind man! 

Apply

• If certainty and adherence to numerous absolutes might not be as required as we were told, what changes might we make to how we see "belief," whether we claim to have much of it or none at all?