What would you do?

Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc. – Randy’s August, 2008 Update

 

 

I had the opportunity to lead a session at a spiritual retreat at the beginning of this month.  (Ahhhhhhh, retreat).

 

 
I asked the group to consider the following: If there were no time limits, no money limits, no limits of any kind holding you back – Everything you wanted to do you could fit into your schedule and afford – What things would you do?  What would give you life, joy, happiness, love, and good self-care?  I asked them to write down as many things as came to mind.

Before you read on, how would you answer that question?  Name your top 5 or 10 things.

It’s important we pay attention to what’s on our list.  These are things we most likely want to be incorporating into our lives (assuming they don’t breach Biblical guidelines ☺) because they fill us up and nurture our souls.  Once we are filled up, the natural response is to give to others out of the overflow.

When I’ve asked this question of groups in the past, I’ve noticed that very often God doesn’t make peoples lists, or at least he isn’t the first thought that comes to mind.  Did he make your list?  Was he your first thought?

One of the most common excuses for not spending time and cultivating our relationship with God is busyness.  Yet in this scenario, there were no time constraints.  We could fit in everything we wanted to.  Still, for many of us, God didn’t make our list or he wasn’t the first answer that came to mind.  When we considered all the things we wanted to do, all the things that would bring us life, joy, happiness, love, and good self-care, God didn’t come to mind.

Why is that?

Discovering the answers to that question is one of the many things I do with young leaders through this disciple-making ministry, because their answers impact the way they relate to God and others.  Their answers affect the way they live out their faith in this world.

Some of you reading this may want to go to a shame place right now.  I encourage you to be very loving toward yourself.  You are completely lovable even if God didn’t make your list.  It’s helpful to simply be honest and acknowledge the truth – in this case, that God didn’t make your list or wasn’t your first thought.  Don’t get stuck there, beating yourself up.  Acknowledging the truth opens the door to discovering the reasons why.  The reasons why are the key to life-change.  When we identify the reasons why, we can enter into the process of bringing those reasons into the light of God’s love and grace, where he can transform them and remove them.

I’ve noticed that as I walk with people on the journey of removing the barriers between them and God, people begin to naturally desire to spend more time with God, not because they “should” but because they want to.  They experience him as life giving and nurturing – the ultimate source of their soul care.  He starts to make their list.  Then he gradually starts to make the lists of those they invest in.

Please pray that God would make our lists – that we would acknowledge the truth and be very loving towards ourselves as we discover what’s going on underneath (the reasons why he didn’t make our list), and then we’d allow God to do his work of transformation in us.

Thanks so much for your prayers, encouragement, and support.  You are making a difference.

Love,
Randy