from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 and 1 Corinthians 9:34-27
While we have this tendency to try to avoid struggle…to avoid suffering at all costs, one of the things that we see consistently in Scripture is that God not only meets us in our place of struggle, but God is able to use our struggle to not only do amazing things IN us, but also amazing things THROUGH us.
As we begin this 6 week series between Easter and Lent, consider we invite you to imagine what God might be able to do if you are willing to be honest about your weakness and create space for Him to meet you there.
w/ Vern Collins and Jeff McClain
from Matthew 6:25-33
As we enter the season of Lent, we begin by considering St. Augustine’s idea that one of the marks of a Christ-honoring life is that our love is properly ordered….God first, other, even enemies, as well as self. While this seems good and right, the truth is, we spend much of our life loving in a way that is disordered…and at the core, the result is sin.
What happens when we love the things of God more than God? What happens when we use the things God has given us as a substitute for God, or when we turn to those things as a way of escape? When we worry about having, not just what we need, but what we want…and enough of what we want, then we have allowed our love to disorder our understanding of what is necessary in this life.
What if the goal was not all? What if the goal was not even enough? What if the goal was God? What if rather than covering your weakness with excess, you took this season of Lent to rest in your brokenness and frailty and allowed God to meet you in that place?
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 6:13
It’s not just that we feel overwhelmed from time to time…many of us are living lives in a constant state of being in over our head…and yet we tend to spend our time and energy looking to people and powers and systems in this world to change things…to give us hope. What happens when those are the very things that seem to be stealing hope from us?
In our final week on the Lord’s Prayer, we look to Jesus’ petition for our protection and deliverance…a protection and deliverance He would make possible because He Himself was not protected from suffering.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 2:22-40
How do we reconcile the anticipation and promise of hope and joy and peace that we are immersed in during Advent with the harsh reality that is a hurting and broken life or this broken world in which we live?
In Luke’s account of Mary and Joseph’s encounter with Simeon and Anna in the temple, we find that Simeon (and as a result, Mary) is very much in touch with long suffering and pain…and we find that perhaps it is not something we are meant to explain away or shy away from.
What if, like Mary, we embraced God’s hope for our lives…both in the good and the bad…and in embracing it find that we are able to point the world around us to the hope we find in Christ?
w/ Vern Collins
