All My Life: The Search

All my life I’ve been…what? You fill in the blank. All my life I’ve been waiting for someone to really care about me. All my life I’ve been waiting for someone to help me figure out who I really am. All my life I’ve been trying to be stronger, faster, skinnier, prettier.

How we fill in that blank helps us answer some of life’s deepest questions: Who am I? Why am I here?  What is my value? What is my purpose?

For me, all my life I’ve been afraid of failing. I figured out at an early age that when I tried things and succeeded, people liked me. So I’ve spent much of my life avoiding things that I’m not good at. Why would I want to try something and fail?

What is it for you? What have you been after your whole life? If you could just get on that varsity team, get that girlfriend or boyfriend, drive that car, get into that school, buy those clothes…then what? Would you be happy? Would you be complete?

And maybe you’re like me, why is it that even after I get what I wanted, I want more.

There’s a story in the Bible about Jesus talking to a woman at a well. He and the woman talk about water, politics, religion, but then Jesus gets very real with her. He talks to her about the relationships she’s been burned in, about her way of living life that has not fulfilled her. He then says to her that he has what she has been searching for her whole life.

There is something about an interaction with Jesus that changes things. I know that my interaction with Jesus has changed me. Jesus makes a very bold claim: he says that I and I alone am the way to God. The way to get what you’ve always been searching for.

I think that you will search your whole life trying to figure out who you really are and it’s only when you let God, who created you, tell you who you are, will you be satisfied.

Only when you rest in the knowledge that you are created in God’s image, that you are loved unconditionally, and that there is nothing, including death that can separate you from God, will you find that your search is over.

All My Life: Someone To Talk To

Marissa gave a wonderful write up of this weeks lesson at Filter. Enjoy!

How often do we crave someone to talk to, someone who understands what we are going through, someone to share our joy, excitement and achievements with?  Many of us are blessed to find people in our lives that we can partner with – our parents, siblings, a best friend.  And these relationships are vital.  However, we often overlook the most important relationship, a central friendship, the one with our God.

God can sound a little creepy – like Santa, seeing you when you’re sleeping and when you’re awake (see Psalm 139).  But in all seriousness, God is with you all the time, when you wake up in the morning, when you achieve great goals, and when you fail miserably.  God sees you when you make mistakes and continues to love you just the same, unconditionally.

But how do we talk to God?  How do we begin this relationship?  It begins with prayer.

This week we talked about two kinds of prayer: the Oh Bleep! prayer and the Chat prayer.

The Oh Bleep! prayer is that desperate plea that often follows really bad decisions.  This can also be prayed when we’re facing really hard times.  We’ve all prayed this prayer – it comes from a place deep in our heart.  And it’s OK to pray this kind of prayer.  It’s OK to pray this kind of prayer even if you haven’t prayed in a while.  God is listening.

The second kind of prayer is the Chat prayer.  This prayer is a conversation had with God, talk to God and then quiet yourself and listen to what God has to say in return.  The Chat prayer is what builds that friendship with God.

Both the Oh Bleep prayer and the Chat prayer are good to pray – but only through the Chat prayer will a real relationship be fostered.  This week try to talk to God every day.  Have a conversation.  Open up your heart to Him and then quiet yourself and listen to what He has to say to you.  How will He speak into your life?

Supplies: Stick To It

Shannon Arthur spoke at Fuel this week and delivered a sweet message! She said that in order to connect with God in a powerful way this year we should Stick to the Priority Pyramid.

The tip of Pyramid is going to church and attending awesome programs like Fuel. The middle of the Pyramid is reading the Bible and Shannon challenged us to commit to reading a Psalm a day.

The base of the Pyramid is Chatting with God. She pushed us to talk to God throughout the day, just like he was our best friend!

Thanks Shannon for a great message we’ll really try to Stick to It this year!

Supplies: Add It All Up

We believe all of life is about two things: Loving & Being Loved. Super simple. You are to take in love from God, your families, your friends, and even yourself – but you can’t keep it all for yourself. Instead you are to spread that love to others.

If you live your life and only suck up love for yourself, and don’t give it away, you’ll never be as happy as you would be if you gave it away.

The same is true if you only give love away without being refilled. You will be like an empty balloon, totally deflated and unable to be most fully who you were made to be.

God is all about fixing up this messed up world and he wants us to help him! But we can’t do this if we aren’t both loving and being loved. But when we are we make the world a better place!