Experience Needed – Day 6.2

Life is meant to be lived.  Many times people form a set of scenarios and/or expectations in their head, and never really live them out – like people without children suggesting how others might better parent!  However, there are usually “aha moments” when these same people have their own children … or they have their second or third child.  Not all children are “text book” children or the same.

So it is with other areas of life – especially when we encounter someone with a need – physical, emotional, or spiritual.  We can tend to think or even say things like: “If they just had a better work ethic.” “They need to get over it and on with their life.”  “They just need Jesus.”

While these statements may contain some truth, they are probably more theoretical than experiential. We have not gotten into the messiness of the situation with them.  It is in sharing the experience together that we both learn.  Hopefully, we then get beyond just showing mercy to helping restore situations.

We’re following Jesus who came and experienced what it was to be human, and gave His human life for our sins.  He came into our messiness to save us.  I like this quote …

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Brandon Hatmaker didn’t have a blog post for Day 6.2

 

 

Try it! You’ll like it! – Day 6.1

I remember the phrase, “Try it! You’ll like it!” from a cereal commercial featuring a a picky eater named Mikey.  I think that it has been used in other commercials as well.  The point is that people miss out on many good things in life because they never even try it.  Or they try something once and decide that it is never for them again.

For the past week, you have been asked to EXPOSE the needs in your community – to seek out areas of need and consider where God is working and/or where He wants you to join Him. Hopefully, you’ve found some of those needs.  Now it’s time to experience first hand what serving to meet those needs looks and feels like. We need to begin to act on the needs we’ve seen.  This is like a tasting experience – you really won’t know what it’s like until you get involved.

I can relate this to when Bev and I began working in Luvability with persons with developmental disabilities.  One of our first experiences was at a Retreat for Persons with Disabilities at the Green Lake (WI) Conference Center (2001).  The facilities were awesome; but we were living with and caring for persons with disabilities for a whole week.  Ironically, I (who talks all the time) was given the responsibility for the care of Jim who was non-verbal!  It was a learning experience for the both of us. I learned to hear with more than my ears, and Jim learned that God and I love him!  I watched him grow in that faith in later years at subsequent retreats as he and I were assigned other buddies for the week.

In the first class I taught that summer, I poised the ice breaker: “Tell us something about your family.”  One of the men from South Bend broke my heart when he said: “I don’t have any family. They gave me up at birth.” He was pretty angry at his life situation. Fast forward to this morning.  I was at a care plan meeting for him today. He is doing tremendously well. He lives by himself with support, works part time 2 days per week, volunteers in the community, has lost 103 pounds, and is in Sunday School and Worship Services every week. He spends several holidays each year with our family. Shortly after I met him, one of the other staff introduced him to Jesus, brought him to church, and I baptized him. In the years since, he reunited with his mother and several of his siblings shortly before her death. What a story of RESTORATION!

I would never have experienced either of those situations if I had not been willing to experience something different … something that was out of my comfort zone.  So this week, we are going to be challenged to experience … I have noted that it may get a little messy; but remember that God is in the restoration business … not only of other people .. but also of us!

Bradon didn’t post anything for Day 6.1

 

 

 

How much do we rely on God? – Day 5.7

This a day to rest and reflect.

Hatmaker asks us to consider this:  God is still the One who shows us need and is the ultimate provision for those needs.

Probably up to this point we have been relying on our own abundance to help meet the needs we have encountered.  What does it mean to rely on God as the ultimate provision for those needs?  Does this mean that we should look for great need because we have a great God?  Probably so.

We have an example of that provision with the Hat Primary Center Ministry.  When we started providing weekend food bags, the need was 12 bags per week.  We committed to providing as long as God provides.  We’ve hit a high of 84 bags per week, and God has always provided in a variety of ways!  Praise the LORD!

Here Brandon Hatmaker’s blog for Day 5.7 …

Compassion (Week 5 Day 7)

 

 

Kingdom People – Day 5.6

Do we see people and situations around us with a Kingdom point of view?

On page 114, I think that a sentence in the Primer has the wrong punctuation I think that there is a period in the wrong place. I think that it should read: “The Kingdom breaks through any time God’s way rules over our way. The Kingdom is exposed when chose the way of Jesus.”    How difficult is us to choose the way of Jesus?  The better we know Him, the easier it is to choose His way.

The last questions on page 117 asks us to evaluate our reasons for not seeing need. One has to do with not looking for need and the other has to do with ignoring what we see.  As Kingdom people we are told to seek; so is not seeking any better than ignoring?  It’s easy to say we are ignorant; but that probably means that we are not seeking the Kingdom of God first!  Just sayin’.  (Matt. 6:33)

For some odd reason Brandon doesn’t have a post for Day 5.6

 

Details, Details – Day 5.5

This is the “Community Day” for this week.  Your major assignment is to work out the details for the group project that you will be doing together. Decide who is doing what to complete your project.

This project may or may not occur on your regular gathering time; so you may need to meet at another time.  See Days 6.4 and 6.5 for more information.

Here’s Brandon’s blog for Day 5.5 …

Prep Day (Week 5 Day 5)

 

What are the facts? – Day 5.4

We often see only what we want to see and hear what we want to hear.  We make decisions and judgements on our previous experiences not considering that other people do the same; so people often approach a situation for different perspectives.

One way we can see things differently is go to the “fact collectors” – organizations and agencies that make it their business to collect the demographics of a community. Paul Moore has already graciously collected some of those facts for us in a South Bend Fact Paper which I shall include at the bottom of this post.

What other facts can you or your group expose?  In his blog, Brandon Hatmaker says: “Look for statistics that might not be so obvious and that others in your group may not have written down. The goal today is to begin to look deeply into your community for hidden need.”  Read more of his blog …

Learn to Do Right (Week 5 Day 4)

Some South Bend, Indiana Facts

Deciding to Change – Day 5.3

“Change always starts with a decision which leads to action.”  – Barefoot Church Primer, p. 106

I’ve made a lot of decisions in my life; but not all of them led to action or the right action.  Change is difficult for most people unless they see a need to change which could be caused by reward, pain, internal motivation, etc. Hopefully, the Holy Spirit is helping us not only see the need for change; but giving us the power to change.

Please pay careful attention on page 107 to the three areas that are suggested for change: Margin, Presence, and Priorities. What you allow God to reveal to you today, could be life changing.  Prayerfully, work through the questions on pages 108-109 and carefully respond to the last question: “How are you being stretched?”

Here’s Brandon’s blog for Day 5.3 …

Making the Right Changes (Week 5 Day 3)

Open My Eyes that I May See – Day 5.2

The old hymn by Clara Scott says: “Open my eyes that I may see – Glimpses of  Truth Thou hast for me …”

Sometimes the glimpses of truth that we want to see are based solely on ourselves – our needs and wants or our spiritual attainment.  We fail to see how God is working in the lives of other people.  Many times he wants us as part of the Body of Christ to join Him in that work; but we fail to see the need.

In the Primer (p. 102) Brandon Hatmaker says: “Jesus reminds us that, in our religious pursuits, we can easily seek the wrong things. And become blind to the right things. But he also reminds us that when we seek the right things, we will find all that we’re looking for (and then some).”

To what is God opening your eyes?

Here’s Brandon’s blog on Day 5.2 …

Strain a Gnat, Swallow a Camel (Week 5 Day 2)

 

What do we really see? – Day 5.1

They’ve done experiments where they’ve staged an incident or accident (filmed it), and then ask witnesses to give a statement. Usually, it is surprising how the accounts differ and what some people notice or don’t notice.

We live in a society where we are bombarded by images – a society where we can look at a situation and ask, “Why doesn’t someone do something about that?”  And not even consider ourselves a candidate for that someone. Many times we become callous, afraid of being taken advantage of, or just to preoccupied to notice what’s going on in someone else’s life.  Or we are so focused on one type of need that we miss other types of needs.

In the reading today, Mother Teresa talks about three kinds of need in every community: spiritual, physical, and emotional (including relational). Often we (the church) focus on one type of need (probably spiritual) when it important to address another type before they can see their spiritual need. I’m not saying that a person’s eternal destiny is not important; but sometimes it’s hard to even have energy to address that if we don’t have food or shelter or are in great emotional distress.  Let’s ask God to open our eyes this week… really!

If you have time, here’s a video experiment I found on Youtube  …

Here’s Brandon Hatmaker’s blog …

Open Your Eyes (Week 5 Day 1)

 

Looking Inside for the Journey Ahead – Day 4.7

Today is a day of rest to prepare for the journey ahead. We have been “knowing the love of Jesus” and “growing in the love of Jesus.”  We have done a missional project together; but this is just the beginning of “showing the love of Jesus” as a way of life.

The last paragraph on page 95 – if done – can make a tremendous difference in our life: “Spend some time in prayer today asking God to show you what false beliefs, fears, personal idols or selfish priorities you need to release.”

Here’s Brandon’s blog …

Learning to Living (Week 4 Day 7)