Don’t take it personally…
Let me just refer you to one of my favorite blogs for today’s delayed post. Seth Godin always seems to see things from a perspective that challenge predominant assumptions and perspectives.
This post on criticism is a classic example of that.
Now I’m wondering, “When I criticize how much of the reason for the criticism is focused on me?” And, “Can I criticize without it being about me?”
Tuesday is for Shallow Small Group
Small groups are growing churches answer to discipleship. There are numerous theories on how to do small groups, and when I was given the task in 2005 of developing the small group ministry at Harmony I tried most of them. Simply put, good small groups require hard work. If people are going to become more Christlike, which should be the ultimate goal of a small group, then getting people to uncover their crap takes time and effort. Neither of these is the comfort obsessed culture willing to give us, and so we not only battle Satan, but the powers and principalities that govern our American life. The following short video is supposed to be funny, but for many people who fear the vulnerability that becoming a disciple of Jesus requires I think this is really what they pursue…The Shallow Small Group.
Hey, I know you feel like you are risking your very life by dealing with the sin you have committed and the sin of others that you have endured, but if you really want to experience healing and wholeness then the faster you go deep the faster you grow deep. If you are in a small group be the first to confess, and if you aren’t find one where people will walk you into and through the depths.
NEEDING to be right…is WRONG!
I used to approach most of my life with the intention of proving myself right.
Some, would say I still do.
It has led to a lot of failed experiments that continue to have lasting effects upon me emotionally, and therefore physically.
Only when I have been willing to admit my wrongness did I experience freedom, growth, change, peace and rightness; however, my pursuit of rightness or truth is different than needing to be right to the point that we refrain from discovering the truth in order to maintain the status quo. In our culture we have equated our worth with our answers or understandings, but our value goes far beyond them.
It’s why the Holy Spirit is such a great gift to us. He doesn’t lead us into rightness, but truth (John 16:13), and often the truth only exposes how wrong we are.
Needing to be right is wrong, but needing the truth is essential to being human. Kathryn Shultz explores in detail our culture’s obsession with rightness and how being wrong can actually be the best place to be.
When was a time that you fought to be right when you were actually wrong? What did the fight cost you? Teach you? How did you, if you did, finally admit that you were wrong?
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