Me Two Three

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."
~Lao-Tzu~


We all know it intuitively; there is a gap between what I am and perceive superficially, and what is really banging around at the depths. People throughout time and all over the world have come to the same conclusion- one must take getting honest and facing his or her real self seriously.
Yet Christians, though invited through Christ to tune into the Source of Life himself, are often no more self-aware, awake and mindful than anyone else.

Take some time in your group context to see if you can, as a group, begin to take steps into a world non-anxious, unthreatened, uncriticizing awareness of what you really are.
You should encourage people to speak honestly about themselves, about how they have perceived the others in the group, and encourage them not to defend or flee from getting insights in your time.

It's tough work. But it's necessary in order to mean, with integrity, every word in the phrase " 'I' have a relationship with Jesus".

Thaw
•What is this group's thanksgiving plan?

•What is something you used to do or think, until you realized it just wasn't true to you? 
•What is something you have learned was always true about yourself that, for whatever reason, you wouldn't entertain before? What do you think changed?
•What most stuck with you Fromm Sunday morning?

Read
•Matthew 7:1-3
Thoughts?
•Often, we think of this as the proper procedure for judging: make sure your eye is clear and then pounce. Instead, discuss the principle Jesus is articulating regarding true sight and our impulse to focus outside of ourselves. What are some examples of how you have preferred to deal with others' junk to your own?
•What if you don't see anything in your "own eye"? Does that mean there's nothing there? Explain.

Read
•Ephesians 4:17-25
•Thoughts?
•What would you say the emphasis is on and why?

Leader note: you may want to point out that much of Christianity is thought to be about the confrontation with the foolishness Paul is describing. But here, as in other places, Paul's chief concern is about followers of Jesus actually being different, rather than merely confronting people with ideas that are different. And that true difference is about being awake, wise, seeing, light and numerous other metaphors for actually being aware and sensitive to what I actually am. While others who do not know God ("Gentiles") think they are the sum total of their impulses, we are invited to be deeply, mindfully different.

Read
•Romans 12:1-3
•Thoughts?
•Throughout the rest of this chapter, there isn't any mention of controlling or fixating on the lives of other people. It's about how we ourselves behave and knowing what's actually going on within ourselves. Soberly aware. Why would a person choose to bypass sober self-assessment and go on to try and change people?

Discuss
•What kids of people and circumstances do we normally avoid? Why?
•How might God want to use what we've avoided in order to awaken us to ourselves?
•How does discomfort serve to "crucify" the false parts of our self so that we can be stripped down to what we actually are?

•How does a group assist in someone discovering themselves?
•How can a group hinder someone discovering themselves?

Leader note: the idea is the safety to think differently, to be interested in things others don't understand, and the freedom to even be wrong. Ay environment that has criticism, or the potential for reality to be something someone can't take, creates a divide in a person where they must not acknowledge their true self, since that self is shameful.

•What can this group do as a practice for the members to have the ability to know themselves?