Seeking: Can These Bones Live?
When you find yourself in a valley of dry bones, when all hope seems lost, when death and grief surround you, with desperation you might cry out, “Can these bones live?” Can we find hope when things are bleak? Can we really trust in God’s resurrection?
Seeking: Who Sinned? (John 9:1-7)
When it comes to faith, sometimes there are bad questions—questions that are formed by assumptions, questions that lead us to judgment or isolation. This week, let us pay attention to the questions we ask. What assumptions do we carry? What is our intent? When seeking clarity or understanding, what are better questions we can ask?
Seeking: Who Will You Listen To?
In order to engage in the spiritual practice of seeking, we must maintain a posture of listening, staying open and curious instead of calloused and closed off. Who will you listen to? Whose voices—and what messages—take up too much space in your head? From the onslaught of messaging we receive, we are invited to choose carefully.
We learn, we hear, we teach that God IS Love. That all love comes from God and God continually shares that love with each one of us. No matter what. And yet…we just don’t always feel it. Or know it. Or see it. It’s right there, all the time, and yet sometimes we just can’t believe it.
If God is love, then why do we feel unlovable?
“What’s Broken Can Be Mended: Wouldn’t You Rather Hear…”
The Beatitudes are a series of promises, or blessings, from God to people who are struggling with life, grief, poverty, injustice, hopelessness. But let’s be honest…not one of us desires to go through any of these things. Wouldn’t we rather hear that we don’t have to, ever? Wouldn’t that be a better promise?
But none of us are promised a life free of struggle. So what is God’s promise, and how can we trust that it’s there when we need it the most?
Say Yes to Rest: Sabbath as Escape (Matthew 11:28-30)
Sabbath interrupts our routines and helps us reset our bodies, minds, and spirits into a healthier space. Whether our lives are comfortable or difficult there are always things we need to escape from, even just temporarily. We already know we could all use a break, but what we struggle with is how to take that break. We think we can’t take a break until all our tasks are finished, but that’s impossible. There’s a never-ending list of things we need to finish. Perhaps instead we could think of Sabbath as a resting place along our journey of life—and that’s where we find what we need to be able to continue on that journey.
We live in a culture where more is often never enough and we fill our days with the anxious and restless pursuit of more…more stuff, more activities, more accolades, more work. How do we understand that production is not our life’s work? How do we stop consuming our lives and live in a way that recognizes the value of our relationships with one another?
God created a day of rest and asks us to honor it…can we do that in today’s culture and how would it change our lives for the better?
5340 Martindale Road
Shawnee, KS 66218
Phone: 913-717-8563
Email: info@shawneecommunity.org
