Bears Repeating. "What fills your tank? What empties it?"

As a group, take on Jonathan's challenge from the message Sunday:
Discuss what fills each person's emotional tank, and what fills it. And then challenge each other to add and subtract one thing from that tank in the next season.

Here's to life, and the Christ who rests while giving that life to us.

Bears Repeating. "There's More Going On."

This week we're taking a look at word again that means....taking another look.

Respect.

The respect you give someone or something is measured by your willingness to look deeply at it, to find its value, its sacred place, even as others have decided they have it pegged. This is the contemplative mind.

Spend some time as a group discussing how the study of scripture in its context is similar to the discipline of seeing people in theirs.



Thaw

• What if anything happens inside you emotionally as Spring arrives?
• Referencing last weeks message, what dogs have you managed to get on a leash, or at least name?
• What from this Sunday has stuck with you most?

Read

• Matthew 9:10-13
• Thoughts?
• Why does Jesus make a connection between people's appreciation for human beings and their appreciation for texts they're already familiar with?
• How is interpreting scripture and interpreting people similar?

Leader note: It may be helpful to think of the similarities in terms of a) consideration of context [historical, cultural, familial] b) intent [what was meant versus how it might be taken on a first pass], c) what am I consciously or unconsciously bringing to it [was my mind already made up, what biases should I name, etc]

Discuss

• How can "the art of the pause" help to ensure we are respecting people (ensuring we are really seeing and hearing them?)
• In what ways is this pause, this contemplative consideration, easy or difficult for you?
• Why is respecting others so difficult when we don't feel respected ourselves?
• In what ways are respect and love the same thing?
• Why is it so difficult to consider "there may be more going on here?"
• Who in your circles of life might say they feel disrespected by you (you don't/won't understand them, hear them, appreciate them, etc?)

Bears Repeating. "You'll always wrestle with that..."

It's something we say a lot.
Not to make someone feel defeated, but to make clear the nature of their journey and to alleviate any unhelpful expectations;

You'll always wrestle with anxiety

You'll always wrestle with judgment

You'll always wrestle with insecurity

You'll always wrestle with anger

You'll always wrestle with depression

You'll always wrestle with greed

You'll always wrestle with hate

It doesn't "go away." 

You'll die with it in you.

For some people this is not true. Or at least it's less true. They come to faith and because of their preexistent disposition or an extra bucket of God's grace, they just aren't the way they were. But for many of us, our growth as followers of Christ doesn't cancel out our junk. For us, we have to allow the Spirit to teach us what Paul was learning, "Self-control".

Use your group time to take some steps in trust. That's what it will take to allow others, especially Christ-following others, to see the junk we've not been successful in eliminating. But knowing each other on this deeper level is key to our ability to keep the dog on a leash.

Thaw

• What stuck with you most from Sunday?
• What specific thing did you feel like was being personally addressed for you?
• What steps have you taken or planned to take?

Read

"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life." 

-Paul, 1 Timothy 1:12-16 

• Thoughts?
• Why would St. Paul say, "I am foremost of all" rather than "I was foremost of all," and how might what he was formerly (blasphemer, persecutor, violent aggressor) still influence him at the time of this writing?
• What does Christ having perfect patience tell us about the expectations on us?

Discuss

• As you have become a person of faith it undoubtedly brings about positive changes and enhancements to who you are. Have you noticed however that some of the old patterns of thinking, views, perspectives and attitudes have held on? To whatever degree you're comfortable doing so, share this.

Read

• Galatians 5:22-23
• Why would Paul start this list with Love and end it with Self-Control?
• What's the difference between suppressing desire or ugly thoughts from others and bringing these seeming indelible facets of who you are under self-mastery?

Leader note: A key difference to look for is that suppression and hiding are often about doing what is assumed necessary to stay "in the group." As discussed several weeks ago, the hope for being counted among the "holy" can cause all kinds of pretending and duplicity. Just shove the liabilities down in a dark hole in your head and pretend they aren't there! However, Self-mastery is the acceptance of self- warts and all. Self-mastery denies nothing, but instead acknowledges the weaknesses and is humble towards self and others for seeing it. Suppression makes us insensitive, willfully unaware hypocrites. Self-mastery makes us empathic, honest lovers of self and others.

Apply

• In what ways can this group help you get the dogs that won't go away on a leash?

Leader note: Consider constant awareness techniques such as short prayers about the situation you're in or will be, meditating on how you're own mind is doing and how it will be as an interaction draws near, naming un-judgmentally the junk you carry as a way of recognizing it's part of you and God already knows it (and has perfect patience for), questioning the validity of your conclusions and feelings even as they feel so real and justified, pausing before speaking or reacting, etc. Your specific group can adopt some strategies depending on themes you discover as you come to know each others' "dogs."

• For the next week, what specific ways would you like to be prayed for as you implement self-mastery over a particular issue?
• Update each other on your progress next week.

SOTAOL Life at the Center

Emma Chandler, 7th Grade, 13

Thaw

• How did the weather in the last few weeks effect you, your thinking and your family?
• What might any negative affects that the weather had on you have to do with your lack of comfort with simplicity and stillness and a loss of control?

Read

• John 5:1-18
• Thoughts?

Leader note: As stated in the message, this passage is highly problematic if Jesus was saying any future sins will create a scenario for this man where 38 years of paralysis would be topped by something more terrible. It suggests sin causes physical maladies, a common motif in all religions, rejected by Jesus later in the first verses of John 9. It's also terrible for psychological health and sound doctrine, because it makes anxiety the driver for better decisions, not Love and Life. Be sure to give this part of the discussion the time it needs, as you may find some in your group not trying to be a student of the Master of Life, but dodgers of consequences, depending on their view of God. You may also find that members of your group believe the bad, even terrible, things that have occurred to them as divine wrath and judgment for some other act or thought. This is a different religion and is one for Christ to save them from for sure!

• Why would Jesus ask this man if he wanted to be made well? How does it affect your answer to consider the man may have been a stand-in for all of Israel (the people of God)?
• What is the significance for us, John's reader, all these years later, to be told the story of a paralyzed Jew in the temple being given the ability to not only walk, but to do so on the day of rest, with his bed under his arm?

Discuss

• What does rest mean to you?
• How important is control over your circumstances, surroundings, relationships, destiny, to you?
• How might this be an issue God wants to help you with, whether you consider yourself a person of faith or a person who is not interested in faith?

Read

• Jeremiah 17:19-27
• Thoughts?
• Jesus told the paralyzed man to sin no more, after healing him on the sabbath, in the gate and ordering him to "take up his bed" (carry his load). How can we interpret what Jesus meant by "sin" if, according to a plain reading of the Bible he also had, he was the one acting in violation of the scriptures?

Leader note: This question strikes at the heart of how we understand God's law. Do we understand it simply as rules to be read and followed and then be rewarded for, or do we come to understand the ultimate emptiness of that (even if initially it's necessary) and instead see the laws as road signs for the awakening mind to follow toward Life. You may want to read Colossians 2:16-17 to discuss the idea further.

Discuss

• What's the difference between a righteous sinner and an unrighteous sinner?
• What do Christ's invitation sound like to each?
• Why would a righteous sinner begin to believe that they were somehow closer to the heart of God than an unrighteous sinner?
• Why would an unrighteous sinner believe they were better for doing their own thing?
• If love, wisdom, compassion and awakened minds come to rest in the center, away from the extremes of religion and anti-religion, how might this group be more a centering place, where its members can mature as awakened students?