The Waiting. 3.

It should be pretty well established by now that the waiting is hard. The real trick is establishing that the reward to waiting well is more awareness of ourselves and others. Of seeing when we're so used to being blinded.


Spend some time as a group and discuss the feelings we expect God to give us, and what it might mean to our lives that God won't be delivering them.




Thaw

• Share some fall memories from your childhood. Were there any traditions, responsibilities, events that are best remembered this time of year?
• Do you find yourself looking forward to or dreading some of the upcoming holidays? Why?
• What from the message Sunday has most stuck with you?

Read

• This is traditionally understood as the Lord's Prayer. Read it together and see what new dimensions you can recognize.

Our Father, who is in heaven

Hallowed be your name

Your Kingdom come

Your will be done

On Earth as it is in Heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses 

As we forgive those who have trespassed against us

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil

• Thoughts?
• Why in such a brief prayer template would Christ include two stanzas regarding forgiveness?
• Forgiveness is obviously not a feeling or a disposition, but an act of a will submitted to Christ's Kingship ("Your Kingdom come!"). What does it mean to you that this prayer connects the act of forgiveness without mentioning the associated feelings?

Discuss

• What have you observed happens when you behave primarily based on your feelings?
• In how many areas of your life do you live chiefly on feeling and does that work in your estimate?

Leader note: It may be worth pointing out in the course of discussion that so long as feelings dictate our actions to us, it's Our kingdom come rather than not God's. When we do only what we feel like doing, we shape our will around our desires, regardless of whether that's best or not. This effectively negates the first five lines of the prayer!

Apply
What can we do to become a people who behave in accord with the Kingship of God, rather than the kingship of our (undisciplined) emotions?

Leader Note: It's important to make a distinction here. Our emotions are important, and shouldn't be ignored. The word "undisciplined" is included to communicate that until the emotions are aligned with our highest selves (love, others-centeredness, grace and peace, Christlikeness, etc) then they should be considered, but given little say in the actions we choose. Leave room for people to understand this distinction; disciplined emotion is a beautiful thing!

The Waiting. Week One.

Americans spend nearly 37 billion hours a year waiting in lines. So we should probably get good at the art form.


Use your discussion time over the next few weeks to help you and your members become the kind of people who can do well what most of our lives demand of us; Waiting. Anticipating. Living between. We can't make waiting go away. We shouldn't try. Life is full of frustration and disappointment and learning to rewire hopes along the way. But it's all the more bearable when we don't wait in line alone!


Thaw

• What are some things you are looking forward to?
• What are some things coming that you dread/
• How do you navigate the emotions to both these kinds of waiting?

Read

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  -Psalm 27:14

...blessed is the one who trusts in you.  -Psalm 84:12

...let my cry for help come to you. Lord Almighty, Hear my prayer, Lord; -Psalm 102:1

Discuss

• Thoughts on these psalms?
• Do you think of waiting on/trusting God as waiting for the exact thing you pray for, or waiting for God to help you navigate life no matter where it goes? Explain how you think of it and where you may have learned it.

Read

• Respond to this quote as a group:

A man who waits for roast duck to fly into his mouth must wait a very, very long time. 

-Chinese proverb

• What does the idea of taking responsibility for everything you can reasonably take responsibility for say to what you have been waiting on?
•  How can you tell whether you are taking responsibility for the right things when you are waiting for something? When has it crossed over into fear, control, anxiety?

Discuss

• Do you feel free to be frustrated, disappointed, etc? Who taught you this?
• Are you threatened by others' disappointment and frustration when things aren't going the way they'd hoped? From whom did you learn this?
• What would change if you allowed yourself to feel peace with your or another's frustration and concern about what is yet to come?

Apply

• In the message, Jonathan shared ideas for helping us wait well. Journaling- capturing the ebbs and flows and the overall trajectory- was one idea. Finding places, spaces or symbols that remind us that the journey we're on is good, important. Watching people's lives and learning from how they journey. These are ways that we makes waiting a discipline rather than a thing to suffer. What ways make the most sense to who you are? How can your LifeGroup help you to adopt disciplines that remind you that life is a flowing stream from one thing to the other to learn to grow in, embrace and even enjoy?