Last night I went to my first "Life Group" meeting. It was so awesome. It is a small Christian women's group that my friend Camille invited me to join. I love, love, love my church. But I have not found a small women's group to be a part of, and I really wanted to find one. I just don't have many Christian friends to talk to. I know I need to learn from those that have walked the walk longer than I have. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another". 1 John 1:7.
So, I'd like to start regularly posting a summary of my Life Group discussions. Here's the first! I think I'll try to stick to the one thing that strikes me the most during the discussion, to keep the posts from getting too long!
The foundation of our conversation was Matthew 11:30 where Jesus tell us: "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We talked about how we often perceive life as being so hard, but God doesn't want our lives to be that way. We are to lay our burdens down and take up Jesus' burden - which is light.
Our discussion leader asked us all what seems to be hard for us. One woman asked another to answer that, saying that it seemed nothing was hard for her. She responded by saying that she doesn't view things in the dichotomy of easy or hard. It's all just her journey. This was amazing to me - I didn't think it was an option not to label every moment/ action/ task as easy or hard, or fun or not fun, or whatever. And I do think that self talk is hugely powerful, so if we tell ourselves "this is going to be hard" that has an impact on us - we are less likely to do it, and definitely more likely to be unhappy if/when we do. So I'm going to keep thinking about that, and try to put that into practice.
This especially makes sense when I think about the little things that lead me to procrastinate - studying, writing a paper, mopping. But it's trickier when we think about major things like a loved one falling ill. It seems there's no denying we'll smack an automatic "hard" label on those trials. It seems that it is almost unkind to label it any other way. If I say losing someone isn't hard, doesn't that make me a heartless wench? But the concern that evokes is really about what other people will think - not about what God will think. We don't want others to think we're heartless or that we didn't love the person. God knows how we feel, there's no hiding from him. If I'm a heartless person he knows that, if I'm not he knows that too.
Interesting stuff. I don't even think I can go so far as to practice what I'm preaching. I don't think I can say that it wouldn't be hard if I lost my husband. Makes me feel horrible to even consider it! But, I'm working on it. I don't want to care about what people think of me, just what God thinks of me. And God knows I love my husband, with increasing depth every day.
All in all, I'd say the hour I spent with my new Life Group was time well spent! God is so good, and so faithful!
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