Tag: disciple (Page 9 of 29)

Turbulence

March 7, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

I’m not a person who flies a lot. Ok I do what I can to not have to fly. Every once in a while the destination is too far away or the timing isn’t quite right for me to drive somewhere. In these moments I have to break down and sit in a metal tube going 600mph at 37,000 feet in the air. As a matter of fact, that’s my current situation as I write this.

When things are going well, you don’t really think about the flight. A little extra noise. A little pressure in the ears. Pop on a movie or open a book and time flies by.

I had my standard cranberry juice in front of me. A small pack of graham crackers as my in flight snack. And then it happened.

The captain came over the speaker and announced we were moving into some bumpy air space and he needed to have the flight attendants take their seats. He then said “Ladies and gentlemen it’s going to get bumpy for the remainder of our flight so stay seated with your seat belts fastened.”

Turbulence is the official name for that bumpy air space. And man did we find some!

The plane was shaking just about every which way you could imagine. I even had to stop typing because I couldn’t hold my iPad securely anymore. But in the end, we made it to the ground safely. Back wheels touched. Front wheels touched and before we knew it we were taxiing to the gate.

But in the midst of the turbulence we couldn’t see the gate. We didn’t know where the airport was. We had to trust the pilot and his instruments to get us to our destination and on the ground safely.

Life is full of turbulent moments. Things don’t always go quite as expected. We hit bumps in life and wonder if we’re going to make it to our destination. The turbulence we experience in life comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be emotional turbulence. You know the kind of broken emotional state that happens when a relationship falls apart right in front of your eyes and you can’t do anything about it. Or there’s the physical turbulence that occurs when you or someone you love is diagnosed with a life threatening illness. There’s mental turbulence that comes in the form of depression and anxiety and overwhelming stress. There’s occupational turbulence when your boss is a real tool. And there’s more but you get the idea.

Turbulence can be found in our lives often without our even looking for it. So how do we get through it?

Just like the pilot on my flight relied on the trusted instrumentation that has brought him through countless bumpy air space moments, we can rely on that which is trust in our own lives. For followers of Jesus, our trusted instrumentation isn’t a computer system or even some great training. It’s the truth of Scripture and the person of Jesus.

When we let ourselves be led by Jesus, following the guidelines found in his word, we rely on the most trusted instrumentation system around. Even though we might not know how it all will end, we can trust the proven nature of God’s provision to bring us through the turbulence of life safely.

So buckle up friends, we’re likely in for a bumpy ride. But rest assured the pilot knows what he’s doing.

Discipline

March 6, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 1 Comment

This week’s word of the day is discipline. Now there are two ways to look at discipline. There’s a negative connotation that says if we step out of line we’ll be met with discipline or punishment. Then there’s the positive spin on the word that indicates hard work, persistence, and dedication.

I’m going to focus on the second one for now. The positive use of the word discipline isn’t always seen positively by some however. I really think a lack of discipline is causing some major issues in our culture today. From diet and exercise to school attendance and productivity at work to parenting to grades in school and even performance in sports – discipline is essential. Unfortunately, in many cases discipline is seemingly lacking.

If you look at some of the GOATs in life (greatest of all time) regardless of their field, you’ll notice that they pretty much have one thing in common. They were disciplined. They didn’t let a failure or misstep prevent them from continuing. They knew what needed done and they did it. Even when they didn’t feel like it.

Discipline is the ability to intentionally and carefully control the way you work, live or behave especially in an effort to achieve goals.

Being disciplined really isn’t hard. It just takes, well discipline. I know. You’re not supposed to use the word in its definition! But what other word should we use? It takes work. It takes dedication. It takes tenacity. It takes intentionality. It takes the ability to push through hardships to get the job done.

A lack of discipline is why many have already abandoned their New Year’s resolutions. Lack of discipline is a major reason people can’t stick with a diet. It’s why gyms are already less full than they were just a few short weeks ago. A lack of discipline is why we give up on things or bale when life gets hard.

What is an area of your life that needs a little discipline? What’s an area where you need to put in a little extra work?

To make it a tad easier pick an area where you are passionate. Find an area of your life that needs to change. Make sure you care about this area of your life. Make sure accomplishing it is something that will bring joy and excitement to your life. It will be hard to get yourself moving if you don’t really care about accomplishing this task.

Then when you make strides toward accomplishing it, find ways to reward yourself. If you’re not a naturally disciplined person, then you might need to bribe yourself to becoming disciplined. At this point, do what it takes to get yourself moving. Just take sure your reward is something that makes sense for your goal. So don’t reward yourself with chocolate cake when you’re on a diet goal.

Celebrate small wins. Keep focused on the end result. You’ll get there. Just keep going even if you have to force yourself for a while.

Can Suffering Be Good?

March 4, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

So there’s a passage in the Bible that is a bit odd for many of us. It’s found in Romans 5 where Paul says that we rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. The ending seems mostly ok. Most people can agree with the character and hope bit, but it’s the starting point that’s questionable for many people.

Rejoice in our sufferings? What’s that about? Who does that?

Ok for starters we have to make sure we get the preposition right. It’s rejoice IN our sufferings. It’s not that we’re supposed to rejoice FOR our sufferings. There’s a pretty big distinction here.

Paul is not some masochist or anything like that. As a matter of fact, I don’t think Paul is really wanting anyone to have to suffer necessarily, let alone do it with a smile on their face. Instead, he’s saying that even in the midst of some less than desirable circumstances we should be able to find joy. We should be able to live with a different kind of perspective on life.

The second part of this that’s key is the word rejoice. Note that he doesn’t say be happy. Because that would be just weird. Happy for suffering? No that’s not going to happen. Happiness at its core has the right set of happenings that allow us to be happy. You can see it in the root word: happy…happenings.

So what is this bible verse trying to tell us?

The long and short is that suffering is going to happen in life. With that in mind we can react one of two ways. We can let suffering crush us and totally derail our lives, or we can look to the greater purpose in our suffering to see what God might be up to. What does he want us to learn?

You see the sufferings, or afflictions of life are often there for a purpose. Sometimes the sufferings are the direct result of something we’ve done. Kind of like a consequence for bad behavior. But other times the afflictions are there to help us see something differently. Still other times a moment of suffering is kind of like pruning a rose bush. If you don’t prune the dead flowers off a rose bush, you won’t have many roses. But if you trim the dead blooms off at just the right place and at just the right time, you can double the amount of blooms you have!

The same is true for afflictions in life. Sometimes those afflictions are moments of pruning. God is cutting back the dead parts of our lives to allow us to produce more fruit, to draw us closer to him, to help us see just how much he can provide for us even when life is really hard.

And I know it sucks! Pruning isn’t supposed to be fun. It’s not supposed to make us happy. Remember it’s the whole idea of cutting something away. No one wants to have things cut away from them. It’s painful! But at times, it’s necessary.

Paul isn’t saying to smile through the pain. He’s not saying that if you just follow Jesus, the hurt won’t be as bad. No that’s bad theology! Paul is saying find joy in Jesus even when the world around you sucks. Know that Jesus is still God and is still in control even when nothing in life seems to be going right. Rejoice in life even through the horrible moments of fear and anxiety because you can trust that God knows far more about the scenario you’re going through than even you do.

Suffering may not be good in the moment but in the end, you just might be able to find God working something pretty powerful out of a moment of suffering.

The Best Tattoo Ever!

February 12, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

Ok so some of you are going to be put off by this post because I talk about tattoos. And that’s ok. You can read it for what it is (way more than a tattoo post). Or just scroll on past and ignore it. Either way it’s up to you.

I’m kind of a tattoo guy. Not the whole cover my face and have a full sleeve kind of tattoo guy because that’s just not me. I do have a couple tattoos and I love them. But there’s one phrase that I think would make a perfect tattoo that would raise a lot of good questions!

This week in church we talked about a bible verse from Romans 3. It’s the whole section that really shaped how many churches function today. The section talks about three key topics that are pretty churchy. I’ll unpack each of these three topics, then I’ll tell you more about the tattoo idea!

The three ideas that really jump off the pages of Romans 3 are justified, redeemed and propitiation. Yeah the last one is a doozy, so don’t worry about pronouncing it because I even have a hard time with it most days.

Justified

Justified is a key understanding found in the Bible. Justified or justification is a term indicating a declared condition. It’s not a process. That’s a huge point to understand. Being justified isn’t something that happens over time. It’s not like you’re slowly justified by something you do or something someone else does to you. Being justified happens when God declares it. And that happened on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross and paid for the sins of the world, God was able to declare mankind justified.

Now before we get all weirded out by this idea, I’m not saying that everyone is going to be in heaven. Not everyone wants to let God’s declaration be for them. Some people would like to have control over their circumstance. They don’t want to rely on someone else so they reject this innocent verdict. It’s kind of like being on trial for a crime and the judge hammering the gavel declaring you innocent, but you turning and saying Nah I’m good. I’ll just serve my jail time anyway. I don’t like handouts from anyone. Who would do that!?!? No one that’s who!

So being justified is God saying you’re innocent. Not because you did good or walked through some process, but because what Jesus did was good enough and complete enough to pay your debt for you.

Redeemed

Redeemed is the second word. This word is one we kind of know but minimally at best. Back in the day, people used to get a newspaper on Sunday mornings. In that newspaper was a stack of ads and sale fliers and coupons. People would cut the coupons and then take them to grocery stores to get discounts on goods they buy everyday. Those coupons had one purpose and could only be used at grocery stores. You’d give the coupon to the cashier and redeem it for a discount.

The little piece of paper has no value at the bank or hardware store. They literally could only be used for one thing. It cost the merchant money but saved you money. Being redeemed is similar. Jesus went to the cross and died in our place. His death was redeemed for our life. God accepted Jesus’ death just like the grocery clerk accepts the coupon.

Propitiation

Now this final word is hard to pronounce and sounds funny but it’s not that hard to understand. Sin makes God angry. He does not like sin at all. Sin requires that some payment is made. This word means that which serves as an instrument for regaining goodwill of a deity. To put that in normal human speak it means that God was angry but accepted Jesus’ death as our substitute allowing us to be in his good graces.

The Old Testament was filled sacrifices of lambs and goats and all that fun stuff. It was a pretty gross thought if I’m being totally honest. But the Bible says that God isn’t happy with the blood of all these animals. Instead a once for all sacrifice was needed. Enter Jesus who died for us and paid our price to set us free.

Ok so when you put all three of these together you’re left with a pretty cool phrase that will serve as our coolest tattoo ever idea. The phrase is best when it’s spelled out in Latin Simul Iustus Et Peccator. For those of you who don’t know Latin, the phrase means Simultaneously Justified while at the same time being a Sinner.

That is so very cool because it means we didn’t have to say some magic formula or wave a wand or be perfect or anything to get God to love us. God loves us without condition. And he loves us when we’re still a mess. He has declared us justified without any work on our part. Now, even though we’re sinners, we’re also adopted into God’s family and loved by him and declared right because of Jesus.

Coolest tattoo ever. Made right by Jesus, even though I’m a hot mess. That’s the gist of Simul Iustus Et Peccator.

Leadership

February 8, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 1 Comment

To be totally transparent, there’s really nothing new or earth shattering that can be said about leadership. It’s probably already been said by someone, somewhere. But I recently heard something on a podcast I was listening to that made me pause for a minute. Here was the definition of leadership they used.

Leadership is disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb.

Wow I love that definition and I hate that definition at the same time. I don’t like it for obvious reasons. I don’t like to disappoint people. No one does really. I’m typically the bull in a china shop who is willing to try new things to accomplish new results. I don’t cling to the way we’ve always done it forever, especially if that way is no longer yielding results. But I still don’t like to disappoint people.

That said, I do love this definition because it describes the life of leadership so very well. The longer you’ve been in leadership the longer you’ll realize that some people will just flat be disappointed with you. More than that however, some people will take that disappointment one step further and sabotage the work you’re doing. I’ll unpack that later.

Why are people so easily disappointed? It really comes down to comfort. We don’t like things to change from the status quo so we experience friction when things start to change. Friction is uncomfortable and that is disappointing to us.

It disappoints us when someone sits in our chair in church. We get disappointed when the style changes from something we’re used to…to something we’re less familiar with. We are disappointed when the leader doesn’t take our suggestion exactly the way we proposed it. I could spend the rest of this post listing out ways people get disappointed but that would benefit no one!

Part of leadership is knowing the people you’re leading. That means you have to know the things that are important to them and the things that they could care less about. How well you know the people you’re leading will help you know who to disappoint and who not to disappoint as often. But if you’re a leader, then you’re going to disappoint everyone at some point.

Back to knowing your people. Not everyone you lead thinks, acts, believes or finds important the same things. Knowing what makes them tick will help you know who to bring into which team and at what stage in their life. Timing is key to minimizing disappointment.

Some of you might be scratching your heads still over the idea of sabotage. When disappointment persists there will be sabotage. Now I don’t mean that they’ll plant explosives in your car or intentionally derail the thing you’re doing and make you look like a fool publicly. Although with some people I wouldn’t rule out that second one! Sabotage often has a more subtle approach. And every leader has experienced sabotage at some point.

Often sabotage looks more like digging in heels to stop progress. Sabotage is when a person is more attracted to the status quo than the transformational change being implemented. Sabotage will sometimes look like bickering and fighting. It will look like division. Sometimes it even looks like abandoning the organization, the leader, or even a friendship for something better.

I’m not going to go airing dirty laundry here but I’ve experienced my fair share of sabotage moments. People who claim to be friends but when they don’t get what they want just bail on you. That sucks if I’m able to be blunt, and since this is my blog I can be blunt.

Part of leadership is being prepared to be sabotaged. Unfortunately we don’t prepare people to be treated like this. We tend to paint rosy pictures of beautiful landscapes where everyone gets along nicely. I don’t know what world those people are living in but it sure isn’t the world I live in!

Look I’m not saying that sabotage is evil perpetrated against you. It’s not some evil plot by bad people. Actually it’s simply the normal reaction of people who get overwhelmed by their own anxiety. Disappointment and sabotage happen. There’s nothing you’re going to do to stop either one of them. But you can change how you react to them. And that’s how leaders are formed.

Another Perspective

February 6, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 1 Comment

Life can seem so unfair can’t it? I mean your best friend has a boyfriend when you can’t seem to even land a date. Your neighbor drives a new car every year and you can’t even afford to put gas in yours. Your coworker gets the promotion you’ve been working so hard to achieve. It just seems like everyone else gets what you’re after and it’s just not fair. You have illness after illness and people around you are always healthy.

When we compare ourselves to everyone else, or anyone else, life just seems unfair. But sometimes it’s hard not to compare. People love to post their instagram lives for the world to see. No one posts the bad stuff. Perfectly posed. Lighting is staged. Tummy sucked in. Standing on a box to look taller because everyone knows you’re short (ok maybe that would be me if I actually cared enough to post pictures of myself!) I mean does she always dress like that? Are his muscles always that defined or is the lighting just right in that pic? Comparison is a terrible enemy that can lead us to a place of brokenness and despair.

I want to introduce a different way of seeing things. It’s not easy and it’s something that I am working on myself. Instead of asking why can’t I have this thing or be like that person, try asking what if it’s just not my time? What if my time is yet to come?

The idea behind it’s not your time is that even though someone else gets the blessing or the good day that you have been praying for, working toward, and expecting for years, your time is coming.

Maybe it’s a job that you have applied for but didn’t get. Maybe it’s a significant other that you have been trying everything you can to find. And everyone around you seems to be married and you can’t even land a steady date. Maybe it’s having a little bit of extra cash to go out on the weekend with your friends and you can barely scrape two nickels together. Whatever it is maybe it’s not your time. Maybe your time is coming.

I know that doesn’t take away the sting of not having it. I know it doesn’t make today any easier, but when you realize that it’s not about your timing or your plans, it does make moving forward a little easier.

And lest anyone think I haven’t had my “it’s not your time” moments, please come talk to me sometime. I will gladly share with you the plethora of moments that things didn’t go the way I had planned and I wondered the same thing you’re asking right now.

So does life seem unfair? Yeah it sure does! I know that some days are going to be far worse than others. But when we shift our focus to a realization that my time is still coming, things tend to look different.

Here’s an exercise I do to keep me focused when life seems a tad unfair. Take a deep breath and look at your own life. Really look at it. Not looking at what you don’t have but what you do have. Make a list, even if only mentally, of the things you have in your life today that you didn’t 1, 3, or 5 years ago. They are examples of the it’s not my time principle in action. Three years ago it wasn’t your time to have those things but here you are enjoying them.

Again, I’m fully aware it’s not going to make a husband magically appear to your non-dating doorstep or a million dollars appear in your empty bank account, but it will shift your mind from scarcity to abundance.

It’s not your time, but imagine how great it will be when your time finally arrives! That will be a day to celebrate for sure!

Peace

January 31, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

Something that everyone longs for in life is peace. We think about it when wars are waged around the world. We think about it when our child enlist in military service. We think about it when we’re bullied on the playground or picked on at work for not being like everyone else. We want peace when our life is a chaotic mess.

The pursuit of peace is something that drives many of us into despair because we’re looking in the wrong places. When we long for peace, and we turn over every rock in the garden trying to find peace looking for it in someway that we can grasp with our own hands, we find it a lot like trying to grab a fist full of water. Unfortunately, that’s not how peace works.

Before we go too much further here, we probably should understand what piece is, and what it is not. Peace is not an absence of war or a place where there is no conflict. Peace, in the way we are using it here, is more of an internal calm, even in the midst of turmoil and struggle. It’s the realization that things are going to work out for the good, even though all evidence appears to the contrary.

While I have to admit, it would be great to live in a world where there is no struggle or pain. We also have to realize that simply is not a reality. There is pain and struggle all over the place in our world. There is fear and apprehension, anxiety and worry all around us. Peace is an internal thing that allows us to navigate life even in the midst of these challenging situations, but where do we find it? How do we grab peace and make it define our present situation?

That’s the hard part because peace is not something we find by looking for it. I know that sounds kind of hopeless, but it’s the truth. We just can’t find peace by securing a bigger bully to help us when life is hard. We don’t find peace by amassing large amounts of money or power or prestige. Peace is a natural byproduct of a right set of relationships.

Throughout the Bible we’re told to trust God. For some people this is an easier task than for others. But the more we can trust God, the more peace we naturally have in life. I know that sounds kind of odd and pretty churchy, but it just is the way it is. When we are willing to give up control of our lives, we actually find greater peace. Trusting in God to function in his role as God allows us a greater peace than trying to earn, win or struggle for peace.

Look, if we’re going to boil this down to one simple thought, it’s that you won’t find peace by looking for it. You find peace only by surrendering.

You’re NO Better

January 29, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 1 Comment

One thing I see a lot of in the world is a unnecessary division between the church and the world. It’s pretty heartbreaking actually. A huge part of the problem is how the church has handled matters we disagree with over time. I’ve said for years that the world knows the church more by what it’s against than what it’s for.

We, and yes I include myself in this assessment, have spent far too much time with fingers pointing condemning, or at least speaking down about how people live their lives. That action is terrible. This lifestyle is wrong. They’re in an unholy place. How dare they do that action to that person. And the list goes on.

Before we get too far down the road here, it’s important to make sure you don’t hear something that’s not being said. I’m in no way saying we can’t differentiate between right and wrong. I’m also not saying we can’t call out a wrong when we see it. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it, and that’s the point of this week’s post.

Last week we asked the question why is the world the way it is. This week we turn the coin over and instead of looking at the world, we address the church. Paul does this really well in Romans 2. While looking at the world at the end of chapter one, he then turns and essentially says but you’re no better.

Ouch! That one hurts a bit. We’re no better. It was directed to the Jewish Christians and the Roman Christians of Paul’s day, but that message is transferrable to the 21st Century Christian Church as well. We’re no better.

Paul says in the first few verses of chapter two, and I’m paraphrasing here, How can you judge the world when you’re not following the rules yourself? That puts you in a really bad place to put it mildly. You can’t judge the world, then do the same, or similar, thing that you just condemned!

How about that one! We condemn the movements in the world around sexual preference, while not condemning the man who gives significantly to the church for having an affair. We look the other way when someone wins the lottery and gives the proceeds to the church, but frown upon people who gamble. We say abortion is wrong, but speak ill of our neighbor and call them derogatory names just because they look different.

You see the point of the whole thing here is that we know better. We don’t have an excuse either. If the world doesn’t have an excuse because God revealed himself in all of creation, then we don’t have any excuse either because we have God revealed to us in his Word. Significantly more clear evidence of God’s power and grace yet we ignore it so we don’t have to do the hard task of loving someone caught in a mess.

Paul will say numerous times in a variety of ways that all mankind has sinned and all mankind is therefore under the same judgment. If all sinned and if the wages of sin (all sin) is death, then all deserve death for the sins they’ve committed. Not just the people who’ve done the big things, whatever those big things are.

Look I get it. It’s hard to see things the way the Bible talks about it. Everyone is on the same playing field. Everyone is on level ground and just because I go to church doesn’t make me any better than someone who doesn’t. This is a huge misconception in the world.

The devil knows he can’t take a believer out of God’s hands. He can’t change their salvation as it were. But he can sterilize them and make them not live like they’ve received the grace needed to change their entire life.

Paul here is driving to the understanding that whether we’re in the church or outside the church, we’re guilty of missing the mark when it comes to fulfilling the law. If all sin and all fall short of the glory of God, and if the wages of all sin is death, then that means the death of Jesus can be applied to everyone. Unfortunately not everyone wants Jesus’ life and death applied to them. Some want to DIY their salvation. Some think they can do it themselves. And this is what leaves the world in such a messed up place.

When the church tries to look down its nose at the world around it just because they look and act different, it sterilizes the faith of the church. And when the church is sterile, it can’t grow and flourish.

Paul is addressing the church in Rome but I think he’s talking about us today as well. We’re without excuse when we condemn someone else and do a very similar thing. We’re without excuse when we rely on the grace of God but don’t give it to those around us. We’re without excuse when we beg God for mercy but don’t show it to others.

The point is we’re no better. But we’re all in need of God’s grace and lucky for us, while we were still messed up in our sins Jesus died for us…all of us.

Stages of Faith

January 26, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 1 Comment

Now admittedly the title of this post will likely mean some won’t even read it. Maybe you’re not a person with a church home and think there’s no way this will mean anything to you. Well if you’re still here, I’d like you to just keep going because while this is going to reference faith in God, there are some transferrable elements here to any belief structure.

There’s a book titled The Critical Journey where you can get more details on these stages. I’ll do my best to offer a very high level summary of my findings on these stages and how they apply to our lives today.

Submission

The book calls the first stage Recognition of God, but I want to go with a slightly different name. The idea is that in this stage you recognize you’re not in control of your life. There’s something or someone out there who’s guiding your life through. Some call it the universe which to me is a tad sci-fi. I call it God, and the way he does it is through the work of what the Bible calls the Holy Spirit.

In the first stage, we surrender or submit our lives to God. We acknowledge there are things we don’t know and things we can’t control. We recognize that God ultimately has our best interests at heart. We still live our lives. Not much externally will change here but inside there’s at least an acknowledgment that something is different.

Learning

The second stage is called Life of Discipleship and focuses on the growth of learning that takes place. As we have this recognition that God exists and is untimely for us, we then turn to learning more about who he is and how he functions. The Bible calls this discipleship, which is what the book uses as well.

The idea here is that the ways of God start to become more ingrained in who you are and how you live. The character is God is something you look for around you. Your learning is sinking in and shaping how you see the world around you. The transition to the next step then becomes easy the more you learn.

Achievement

The third stage of faith is when the submission and learning become doing. This is the Productive Life stage. There are things on the outside that start to change a little. We shift our time around to be in worship on Sundays. We set aside some of our household budget to give to the local church. We try to cuss less. You know all those things that happen when you’re not living your life just please yourself.

This stage is marked by outward expressions of our faith. We’re definitely not there yet as the saying goes, but we’re letting the learning start to chisel away the rough edges of our lives.

Reflection

There’s generally a time when we’ve done a lot of learning and started to become more active at church when we feel a need for something more. This is the Inward Journey stage.

Here we spend time meditating, praying, reflecting and wanting more than just surface level stuff. Sunday morning worship is great but we long for something more. We recognize that we need to take the Sunday morning event and move it into our relationships and darkest corners of our lives. There’s generally time spent in counseling to help dig deep into our inner lives to see what really makes us tick and how this whole faith thing will make a difference beyond an hour a week.

Journey

Sometime during the reflection stage and before we get to the Outward Journey stage we’re going to hit a wall. This is the place where the chaos of life hits us square between the eyes. It generally happens with a conflict or significant loss. The wall is found in an unexpected divorce, job loss, major conflict with friends. It happens when life is upside down and inside out. As we navigate the wall in front of us, the reflection stage will either loop us back to the beginning or propel us on a journey of outward expression of faith.

This fifth stage is all about living out in a very intentional way the elements of our faith that are critical. For Christians, this is changing the motivations of hearts to love. We often will continue to do what we’ve been doing, but now it’s for a different reason. Our motives become pure in light of the inner faith journey we’ve been through. We’re not perfected in love and we still struggle, but the fifth stage is really all about intentionally walking in the faith we claim.

Love

The sixth and final stage the book proposes is really living a life of love. That phrase is a bit sappy sounding but it’s not really all touchy feely, crying and hugging kind of love. The highest level of faith development is when the love for Christ and love for neighbor propel all of what we say and do.

Of course there will still be hiccups along the way. Of course we’ll falter and even fail in this process. The overarching idea however is that we have arrived at a place where the message of God’s love and mercy has been so internalized and applied to our relationships and struggles that it just oozes out of us everywhere we go.

Unfortunately, many people or perhaps even most people never make it past stage three. They get stuck in the achievements of faith section. They volunteer at church and show up for worship. They sing or perform or help on teams, but their level of faith is never really internalized or lived out in real time.

There will be some who make it to stage four but this and the wall associated with it normally serves as a strong roadblock to going further. Perhaps knowing the stages will be helpful in progressing through the cycle. Maybe if we know there can be more than just knowing God and his teachings then we’ll long to find a way to do that and it will shape how we live.

Wherever you are on the cycle, there’s always room to grow and mature. There’s always another step in the journey. Where are you?

Hey Thanks!

January 17, 2024 / Derrick Hurst / 1 Comment

A simple thought. An easy word really. But do we say it enough? Why is it so hard at times to say thanks?

Ok so it’s not that it’s hard to say, it’s that sometimes we forget to say it. At least that’s my biggest problem with today’s word. But did you know the more you say thanks, the harder it is to complain?

It’s a fact. You can’t be disgruntled about something and thankful at the same time. It’s like being blinded by light and in total darkness simultaneously. It just can’t happen!

Gratitude should probably be the word for today, but thanks is so much shorter of a word. A simple thank you can totally change someone’s day. And no I don’t just mean the person to whom you’re speaking either. I mean you. It can change your day.

Saying thank you over and over again for things will condition your brain to look for things for which you can be thankful. The more thankful you are the more you’ll say thank you and the more you’ll see things for which to be thankful. It’s like this crazy cycle of goodness!

Here’s a little secret as you try to implement this one in your life. You don’t always have to be overwhelmed with thanks to just say thank you. I’ve said thank you at times when I wasn’t really even sure that I was thankful. I did it because it felt like the right thing to do. I did it because I knew if I said thank you eventually my heart and head would catch up to my mouth. I don’t mean to be disingenuous by any means. But sometimes you have to say it out loud before you can feel it deep inside.

Today’s word comes with a challenge. What are some simple things that people do for you consistently that you could slow down long enough to thank them for today? Maybe it’s your spouse always making sure there’s food in the house – that should probably be one of mine. You know I can’t remember a time when I went to the pantry or the fridge and it was totally empty! And honestly I don’t know if I’ve ever said thanks to my wife for doing the whole people thing and going to the grocery. So here it is, in public for anyone who cares enough to read this, Thanks Dear for always making sure there’s food in the house!

Who will you thank today?

Tag: disciple (Page 9 of 29)

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