WEEK 7
A mature, flourishing life requires that we don’t start over after every storm, seasonal or sudden. While not prescribing anything new, Jesus concludes his sermon by revealing the anxiety and unrest that often accompanies our efforts to build a stable life. Reminding us to keep our eyes on the way to the path of life abundant, to keep our eyes open to what’s being sold to us along the way, and to keep our focus on the place where life is truly made, Jesus leaves us where we started: learning contentment. If you don’t know what we’re talking about or need a refresher(!), listen to Sunday’s sermon before continuing.
We have spent this series encouraging each other to pay attention to our physiological repsonses to Jesus’ words, everyday conversations, and a variety of moments of opportunity, trouble, and interaction. When our heart rate speeds, our minds race, or our stomach tightens, rather than trying to relieve or escape the symptoms, we ask for an examination:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Examine me and know my disquieting thoughts. And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way ancient and everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
Open to being shown and led, our unsettledness and restlessness, which “disquiets” our days, become what such physical and emotional feelings are meant to be: indicators of an invitation into greater depths of freedom—for us and others.
Knowing now what to look for, we conclude our series, paying attention to where our eyes are fixated.
READ the verse below.
“O, LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child content with its mother, like a weaned child content is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131:1-2)
Now, BREATH your way through the following stanzas. Each line is long enough to slow your breath, requiring both a deep breath in and a long exhale as you read them. REPEAT the breathing exercise three times, and then enter (or re-enter) the work for which you were made.
· Breath In on lines 1 and 3 of each stanza
Exhale on lines 2 and 4 of each stanza
(1) The Kingdom is within my grasp
(2) I don’t need to be grabby
(3) Already Blessed is life in Jesus
(4) My life is hidden in Christ
(1) God’s Thoughts are too many to add up
(2) I don’t need to get lost in the math
(3) Wonderful are The Works of His Hand
(4) My soul knows it well
(1) Abundant Life is in Relationship
(2) I don’t need more but different
(3) Life is in Jesus, The Light of Life
(4) My life flourishes in The Light