A Shrink-wrapped Existence

Our ONE series continued Sunday as we examined what stands in the way of us truly experiencing the transcendence for which we were created. In a nutshell, the answer is sin. Sin is not a popular word in today's society. As soon as I began talking about it yesterday, I could sense people's tension. Sin is the ultimate shrink-wrap that shrinks the size of our life down to the size of our life. God and others then get squeezed out.

Here's another interesting perspective sent to me about our shrink-wrapped lives. Shrink-wrap also has the unfortunate ability to isolate people from each other in addition to keeping them isolated from God. In our best moments we are on this journey together. Not having grace to free us from this isolation is perhaps the biggest tragedy.

What do you see as the biggest tragedy associated with our shrink-wrapped kingdoms of one?

Guest Blog: Nancy Jumper vs. the Prayer Path

I signed myself up for a slot in CrossPointe’s Prayer Path experience, and arrived at my appointed time with two family members. We thought we’d enter at the same time so as not to mess up the schedule. We were told that it would be a much better experience if we staggered our entry by 10 min each to make it personal. However, instead of accepting and enjoying that, it became a chief focus of distraction.

My frustration about us entering separately was all I thought about as I started through the labyrinth. The peaceful voice on the “Path Tour Guide CD” became the voice of my siren. The more she beckoned me with her silky voice to “relax and let go of the noise of distraction in my head” the more agitated I became that others were entering, but not the last of my party. By the time I got to Station #3 – where I was prompted to tightly hold a pebble in my fist, attach my cares and worries to it, then symbolically lay those in Jesus’ lap by releasing the pebble to float into a bucket of water – I realized I couldn't do it! I defiantly shoved the pebble in my pocket and carried on to the next station. At each stop the CD’s mesmerizing music, peaceful voice, and impactful activity got nothing from me but snotty responses and harried glances around the room to see if my son had finally entered.

About Station #5, I saw him enter and reverently start his journey at Station #1. This calmed my heart as I completed that stop, and I realized I needed to go back now to #3 and drop the pebble. I went to the bucket of water and tried to drop the pebble…but again failed. Still too much static in my head! Although I knew I was tainting my experience…I wasn’t yet able to let go. Off I went to continue with Station #6 – Communion. To sit on a pillow in God’s presence and prepare myself for the sacrament of communion in grateful recognition of his son’s broken body and spilled blood only magnified my inner conflict over the pebble.

I sat there a long time wrestling with myself, with Him…and with that blasted pleasant voice on the CD! I needed a reason to let go! I needed a justification! After a while, God whispered to me that there was no reason or justification in his love and sacrifice for me, he just wanted to do it. Whoa! The velvety-voiced CD lady couldn’t have said it better. When I finally came to the point of WANTING to let go, His Holy Spirit did the rest and took the angst from my heart and head. I had a lovely communion and got up to continue.

I knew my first stop had to be to go back to the afore-dreaded Station #3 and get that pebble out of my pocket and into Jesus’ lap. And this time… Success! I revisited a couple more stations as well…then moved through the maze actually engaging in what God had intended for me at each stop. Near the end I was prompted to look at myself in a mirror, take note of the image I saw, then try to grasp what God sees when he looks at me.

I found it was unexpectedly uncomfortable to stand and look at myself as I tried to think about what God saw, so I leaned to the side. When I did this, I realized that the image now in the mirror was of others around me going through The Prayer Path. I was seeing the life that was happening all around me. Stunned, I realized that is one image God sees when he looks at me. He sees the people and circumstances all around me, and how He can impact them through me.

And so when I left, I realized I’d fought the battle of the noise in my head against the experience of the prayer path. I also realized this is a familiar battle that I fight every minute of every day. Although not always accompanied by a CD directing my steps and not always victorious; I am convinced that as I fight these skirmishes, the Holy Spirit works as a knight-in-shining-armor dispatching my dragons.

Thanks for the profound reminder.

--Nancy Jumper

Fortune Cookie Faith - One Week Later

A week ago, I shared with everyone about the lessons I learned from Hebrews 11:1. Among the thoughts I shared was a translation of the first phrase, "Now we know that faith is the substance of things hoped for". In contemporary context, it might read like this:

Faith is the confident trust in God that provides the bedrock upon which our hopes are founded.

I also shared with you about the difference between a hope (a desire with an expectation that it will come to pass) and a wish (a desire that is deemed unattainable), and how those might look in the context of our faith journey.

One week later, how has this played out in your spiritual journey? Do you view faith in a different way than you did a week earlier. Did it clarify? Did it confuse?

Share.

This Thursday and Friday Only

You have the opportunity this Thursday evening or Friday during the day to experience the Prayer Path.

Pause for a moment and consider your surroundings. What do you hear? The hum of the fan on your computer? Coworkers talking? It doesn't feel much like Holy Week.

As you read this, there is a labrynth set up at Crosspointe. A prayer path. A chance to pull away and let go of all of the things that run through the mind.

Stress. Worry. Guilt. Fear. The grocery list. Did I remember to feed the dog? (Yeah. They all get equal billing in my brain.)

Three years ago when I went through it, I wasn't sure what to expect.

We walked in. Took off our shoes. Twelve stations. A headset with a CD. I pushed "play."

Nothing prepared me for what God did in me. I didn't even know I had stuff to let go of. By the time I had completed the twelve stations, Easter suddenly seemed so real. I'm not talking about the historical event of it. I'm talking about changes in my soul. There's so much stuff that we carry with us every day. (Way more than the grocery list and the dogs.) The prayer path was an opportunity to let that stuff go. A time for Jesus Christ to be real and present in my soul.

As a blog post, this falls short in describing the beauty of it. There are a few more spots left if you want to go through it. E-mail Kylie and David and grab one.

More

We began our new series Sunday entitled ONE. The tag line to this series is that you and I were never meant to be little kings and queens ruling our tiny little kingdom of ONE. As our band so beautifully rocked for us on Sunday, "we were meant to live for so much more." This desire to be part of something bigger and more profound than our own existence was instilled in us by God. Unfortunately, we often settle to live within our own little kingdoms and never experience the transcendent life that God offers. What holds you back from pursuing more in your life? Why do we tend to settle for less when God offers us so much more?