Loneliness eats at the human heart like a cancer. Odd that the more social media available the more alone we seem to be. We live full out fast lives with little time to really sit and listen to another and have them ask about us... and listen as well.
Just wondering if one of the reasons we are alone is our "small lives". I and II Corinthians calls us to live large, not small (this is literally said in The Message Translation). A small life centers on me, how am I doing, what's good for me. I control the conversation and talk rather than listen. That's the mantra of the culture but the odd thing is that it seems that the the culture hasn't figured out yet that "me" centeredness is smallness.
Living large is living in the full experience of God's way. That is more than just doing right. It is living in community with others. Asking about them. Caring about their hurts, joys, challenges. One key measure for me is when I am in conversations will I focus on the other or do I have to get to my story, my life, "me"?
I Corinthians 14 is a chapter about gifts. I am jazzed that we are headed into a study of spiritual gifts at GraceRiver coming this Fall. It's going to be a really special season. What is even more special is we are going to do this in our growth groups. Discovering my spiritual gifts is not about discovering how special I am, what God is doing in me! The Message speaks of this as living a partial and piecemeal life! Spiritual gifts study is discovering how special we are, how the Lord has made us together, placed us together to live large and have a significant difference in the world.
Significant difference is not about me... it is about us! It is how God moves in me in cooperation and coordination with how the Lord moves in you (plural)! GraceRiver is a community, people placed together for a larger purpose.
If we are not careful, the discovery of spiritual giftedness can drive deeper our aloneness as we focus on ourselves. However, when I discover I am gifted for you, for your benefit, for the benefit of others and even those beyond the church I begin to enter a larger life!
Ironic that in the Kingdom of God one of the ways out of loneliness is finding our fit in the body and moving toward others (not away) to serve (not to receive).
GraceRiver is becoming this body! We are moving beyond small lives gathered on Sunday to go to church. We are becoming people who care for one another, who invest in one another, who love others as we love ourselves. You see, Jesus not only tells us to love others as we would love ourselves he gives us a specialness (spiritual gift) to make that contribution and connection.
I am jazzed at the move of God here at GraceRiver. This Fall will be so incredible as we learn about how the Lord has placed us together uniquely by giving us spiritual gifts, unique ways God expresses Himself through each of us. I hope you will be a part!
No comments:
Post a Comment