from John Ortberg's The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You
*Keep up the good comments. Each of you is bringing out some great points along the way.
1. I really liked chapter 4. It began with the story of how King Saul tried to give the Shepherd, David, his armor. It absolutely was not the right fit. "The bible does not say you are God's appliance; it says you are his masterpiece. Appliances get mass-produced. Masterpieces get handcrafted." How often do you celebrate your uniqueness? 2. Spiritual growth is hand-crafted, not mass-produced. god does not do "one-size-fits-all". Comment on that statement.
Pastor Dave comments---This is a key reality that churches need to accept, embrace, honor, and lift up. what is also means is more work as we can't simply provide programs, preach sermons, teach in such a way that assumes all are the same. If anything, accepting this reality will be a major blessing and spark for the church's ministry.
3. Here is Ortberg's "alternate question" that he feels we should be asking more often----"What do you do that makes you feel fully alive?" (remember his comments that sustainable spiritual growth can't lat if it is built purely on 'should')
4. In the section starting on page 53 (called "What is My Pathway?), Gary Thomas lifts up several sacred pathways. He says that we will "often recognize our preferred pathways because we find ourselves being changed or making key decisions when we are doing a particcular activity." He lists these on page 55:
Naturalist
Ascetic
Traditionalist
Actvivist
Caregiver
Sensate
Enthusiast
Contemplative
Intellectual
Share with the group what you identify as your top 2. The follow up is simple-- are we spending enough time exploring these pathways?
5. Chapter 5 speaks about the importance of learning to surrender- not just once but as a continual experience. "Surrender means that I will seek to handle the problem facing me in a way that honors God. the options that look attractive to me-avoiding, evading, gossiping, blasting- I relinquish to God?"
Is that a helpful statement for you? In the complexities of life and the many situations we encounter would the simple question- "am I honoring God in this situation?" help you.
6. One who listens to music can't help but recall Carrie Underwood's song- "Jesus take the wheel". Although some Christians may not like the simple metaphor of Jesus in driver's seat, Underwood has captured the concept of "surrender" as has Ortberg. If not familiar, google the song. What do you think of the metaphor of "letting Jesus take the wheel"?
7. Chapter 6 is a brief chapter. It challenges us who believe that the harder you try at anything, the more success you will have. Ortberg title this chapter, "try softer". Share the aspects of this chapter that stood out for you.
(for me, I highlighted and underlined the following quote- 'rarely does anyone seek help for their pride problem. There are no Betty Ford Treatment Centers for the Insufferably Arrogant, but not because we don't need them'.)
8.Final Note--- Please share any insights/ comments from any of these chapters that you would like to mention. (There is a great supply of quotes and insights that any of us could spend time thinking about but I have not commented on)
Looking ahead-- next 10 days (7/4- 7/14), comments will be based on Part 3 (chapters 7-10)
1. How often do you celebrate your uniqueness? Never. I guess it's the use of the word celebrate that makes me say never. I do allow myself to feel thankful for some of the things I like about myself. I like that I'm a listener and that people seem to confide in me things that they don't others. I appreciate in myself my power of observation and my skills in remembering conversations, helping to make people feel special and listened to. But for the most part, I don't think those qualities bring much celebration, more because the skills I lack counter the need for celebrating!
ReplyDelete2. I think that's a very hopeful thing for all of us. I can't imagine believing that God intended us all to fit and serve in one mold.
3. -"What do you do that makes you feel fully alive?" I think for me this answer changes, hopefully in the right direction. When I was younger I was very career oriented and while this did make me feel alive, it also pointed me directly at the things I was neglecting. I couldn't feel more alive now than when I am laughing with my family, or even oddly enough, crying with them. We just lost our family dog of 13 years, and honestly the grief that we shared as a family was something very special to me. A little hard to explain, but being so close to my family and knowing we were able to help each other just because of our closeness made me feel very much alive and complete. And now, returning to regular worship with my family has reminded me what that "full" feeling of happiness is like.
4. The contemplative naturalist is what I believe. A walk in the woods, on the beach, in the mountains, anywhere that I am alone with God makes me feel closer and more able to speak to him honestly. Very tough to pull out of life and take those walks, but I do my best. (of course as I write this I flash to the previous chapter and think perhaps I'm not quite doing my best to get there!)
5. Learning to surrender to God is absolutely something that I know I need to learn how to do. I have a need to try and control, or more accurately think I can control things, when usually they are well beyond my power. True surrender and asking the question on whether I am honoring God would and is beginning to help me, although I have a long way to go.
6. The song popped into my head immediately too. It's a fitting metaphor I think and ties in with the GPS and surrender and just overall not thinking we are the ones in charge.
7. "Don't push the river." Made me think of how bad I am in a canoe, most especially when I try to fight the current. I think 'try softer' is a helpful thing to keep in mind in everyday life. Some days are just so challenging that maybe just relaxing a bit and accepting that maybe the river is going the right direction and I need not fight it.
8. Towards the end of chapter 4.... "When I am aware of my signature sins, I am less vulnerable to them. Knowing where the land mines lie is the first requirement of a safe journey." This really hit home for me. I think that many of my sins are repeat offenders, and that often times I could have just avoided the mine field all together. Yet something else for me to keep in mind and work toward.
It's gotten quiet around here. Is eveyone lurking at least?
ReplyDeleteI discovered my passion for music when I was just turned six. I got interested in a completely plastic Emenee kids guitar with nylon strings that amazingly had pretty accurate intonation. With a book of Christmas carol charts and Christmas Eve imminent, I practiced until I knew all the changes cold, and I accompanied my brothers as we went around caroling. After Christmas, I got interested in other things, but I always came back to music.
When I was seven, Russia launched Sputnik and it was decided by my parents I needed to become a scientist. My growing consumption by music created more tension the older I got. The lack of support I received filled me with doubts about my musical focus to the point that I lost the dream, became interested in computers, and moved on.
When I became a NASA Goddard CSC contractor (title: Computer Scientist) supporting the Orbit Computation System in 1984, it was the fulfillment of my parents' dream. It lasted a year until I couldn't take the managerial arrogance any longer coupled with the stress of astronauts' lives being dependent on my systems' well-being. I had hoped what I experienced was merely local to Goddard, but the Challenger disaster two years later proved otherwise. My Dad died of prostate cancer less than a year following that sobering confirmation of my perceptions.
Meanwhile, my musical skills had found a home in the Worship Team of Beth Messiah Congregation. Within a year of joining, I switched from electric guitar to bass and relearned how to play and sing simultaneously. Mostly, though, I learned how to worship, then lead worship as a sideman. I found I had the ministry of making worship leaders sound good. I have always had an order of magnitude more personal satisfaction from that area of service than from my computer work, important as that has been.
A key I have not encountered reading Ortberg's book is the need to be dead to self. It is almost subliminal in its vagueness, permeating everything he writes. Watchman Nee wrote of receiving the revelation of this reality one day and it caused him to run around shouting to his friends, "I'm dead!" He received freedom that day that lasted his whole life. I begged the LORD for that revelation. Looking back now, I realize it snuck up on me at some point I cannot identify.
What an incoherent post. I pray it somehow blesses someone.
1. I almost never celebrate my uniqueness more often I want to be someone else. What really got me though was the thought that I am God's masterpiece I don't see myself that way I feel more like I have ruined His masterpiece. As I meditated on this the thought occurred that it is not that I have ruined it but have not allowed it to be seen especially to myself.
ReplyDelete2. It is a relief to know that my spiritual growth is not the same as everyone else's that way I can be free to accept try something and not feel guilty that it doesn't work. Also it takes away the frustration I sometimes have with my husband that he is not working on his spiritual growth the way I think he should.
3. Coming back to church to worship with my husband not only make me feel fully alive but also makes my marriage more alive. Cooking for others and dinning with them can make me feel fully alive also. Working on spiritual retreats, receiving Holy Communion and spending time with a person who needs a listening ear all make me feel fully alive.
4. I can see myself using all of these pathways at different times in my life but the three (yes I know it is suppose to be two) I go back to again and again most often are traditionalist, caregiver and contemplative.
5.This is a difficult question I am asking myself right now. I want to handle the complexities in my life right now in a way that honors God but am struggling with how to do that. It seems whenever I feel like I have made the right choice something "pops up" to confuse me. I know I need to keep surrendering all to Him over and over until it sinks in.
6. I can sometimes really relax and sleep sometimes when someone else is driving the car but sometimes I am scared or frustrated. So the metaphor of Jesus taking the wheel is a little hard for me to grasp.
7. The things that jumped out at me were from the second paragraph on page 72 "Trying softer means focusing more on God's goodness than our efforts. Less pressure. It means less self-congratulation when I do well and less self-flagellation when I fall down. It means asking God for help."