Epic Retreat: Resolution

Adapted from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

 

The story of this past weekend is over. We bonded and learned about each other. We studied what it means to be a part of this Epic story of our lives that God is writing for us. Now, we have a decision to make. Are we going to stop trying to write the story and trust God with our lives? Are we going to live up to the call that he has put on our lives to love others and to share his love with the world. Will we let him use us to affect other people?

In the Lion King we saw that Simba had run away to live a life worry free, Hakuna Matata. When Nala finds him he doesn't want to go back, because he is ashamed, but the pride needs him. The pride lands have been covered in darkness. A force had pushed against them and they were broken. If Simba doesn't return, many will be left in the dark. Simba sees his father in His reflection and then in the sky and he realizes that Simba was running from his father, but his father lived within him the whole time.

God lives in each one of us. He knows where we have been and where we are going. He wants to use us to be a part of his story of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). There are times when, like the disciples, we are left to wonder if Jesus is really going to come back, if there will be a day when he will come and reconcile all things back to himself.  We read the story and we know that he is coming back for the disciples and that he promises to return again. Because of this, we have hope. We know we don’t have to fear death because through his death we have eternal life. We know Jesus is alive and living through us.

Read Revelation22:12-13.

He will reward us according to what we have done, how we have lived our story. How did we live for him and not ourselves. Will we go back into the world after this weekend and seek to know God and to be a part of restoring the brokenness in our schools our families and the world.

God has invited each of us into the story. He provides us with ambition to seek him and to know him. He allows conflict in our lives that changes us and shapes us. He lives within us so that we can shine his light into the dark places. God's story is the greatest story ever and we are a part of it. He invites us in and calls us to invite others in through his love and grace. It is indeed Epic!!

Epic Retreat: Overcoming Conflict

Adapted from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

Physically we change about every six months. Our hair dies and new hair replaces it. Some of us are growing taller. As we learn through school and life experience, our brain is making new connections and absorbing information. As the seasons change we see the leaves change colors and fall off the trees, then snow falls and cover the ground, then in the spring the trees start to bud again and everything is green. The temperature changes. The tides change. This all happens because there is a force that changes them. The position of the earth in orbit, the pull of gravity, distance to the sun.

In every story there is conflict. As the character pursues their ambition, there is a force that works against them, that keeps them from pursuing their ambition. We have decisions to make and there are positive and negative turns in our life that affect our decisions, but our response to those events will define a part of our story.

We are hesitant to change because change and conflict can produce pain, but joy doesn’t change us, conflict does. Like we read earlier in Romans 5, perseverance produces character, conflict produces change. It shapes our character and our story. When we work for something, when we have ambition and we pursue it through pain, it has more meaning, it’s more real, and life becomes fuller.

“Without something that disrupts their comfort a character will never enter into a story. The change is a doorway that once the protagonist enters they can’t turn back” – Donald Miller

When God writes our story he gives us ambition and purpose and as our character is shaped through perseverance he brings us hope. God disrupts our comfort. He allows positive and negative turns to happen in our walk that will change us and shape who we are and who we will become.

Read Ephesians 2:1-10

Sin makes for a bad story. When Adam and Eve eat from the tree, the story takes a negative turn. The rest of the Bible is about healing and restoration from the brokenness that happened in the Garden. Their decision at this point in the story affects the whole story. Although God kicks them out of the Garden, he doesn't leave them alone. The rest of scripture is about the struggle for redemption which ultimately comes through Christ.

Jesus had to face conflict to pursue his ambition for us to know the Father. He was beaten, ridiculed, stoned, and mocked. He had to sacrifice his life and it changed the story of the world. It changed your story, because through Him, you have eternal life. His pain and sacrifice makes the ending more beautiful. He died so you could be free, and so he could work through you to break the chains of injustice in your schools and families and out in the world, but our freedom came with a cost. 

Read Matthew 16:21-28

Jesus became sin to save us and to redeem us. He wants to be the writer of our story. He finds us in our places of brokenness and offers us life. It doesn't matter what we've done or how far away we seem to have strayed, his grace covers all sin and he welcomes us into his story of fullness and restoration.

Some Questions to ponder:

• What are your fears? 
• What are some events in your life that changed your story? 
• What might you need to let go of in order to trust God with your story?

Epic Retreat: A Protagonist with Ambition

Adapted from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

Epic (n.) - a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.

This past weekend we talked about how we are all living a story. God is the writer and invites us into a story about beauty, brokenness,life and restoration. Our first evening we read the story of creation from Genesis 1. We closed our eyes and pictured what may have been happening "in the beginning" when the world was "formless and empty." Then we listened as God created the light and dark, sun and moon, land and seas, animals and people. We read how he formed man in his image and called him to take care of God's creation. This is the beginning of an Epic story. It's the beginning of our story, our inciting moment.

A friend of Donald Miller defined story as "a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."

Story is an invention of God. Scripture is story after story. The Old Testament tells stories that reveal God’s character to us through His creation and the works of his people. He is creating an epic that prepares us for the coming of a Savior and the New Testament is the response to that story. God is writing our story and as we learn to acknowledge him, we learn to live a better story.

Characters who live good stories want something that is valuable. If we don’t want anything (or we want something of no value), it makes for a boring story. Nobody wants to read books about someone who wants a car and wins the lottery and gets a car. It’s a dumb story. What you want tells your story. It tells something about who you are and brings purpose and meaning to your life. What you want matters. What gain is there if you get what you are after. Will it affect others?

If your ambition is valuable to you and will affect others it will take risk. With ambition comes risk and with risk comes fear. There is risk involved with pursuing our ambition which scares us because it is going to force us out of our comfort zones. We might have to change and it will be hard but Romans 5:1-5 tells us that perseverance produces character, it shapes who we are.

We read in John 17 that Jesus was a man with ambition. His ambition was to seek God and to know his Father's heart not for his own gain, but so that the world would know Him. What he wants affects the lives of the entire world. His desire is that we would know Him, but to get there, he has to face conflict. It will cost him something if he chooses to pursue this ambition.

Hearing His Voice

A couple of weeks ago, someone asked "how do we know when God answers our prayers?" It's a question that we are often afraid to ask because we can feel like if we don't hear from God, maybe we aren't adequate or something is wrong with us, but God knows each one of us. He cares and is listening and Jesus explains to us in John 10:1-18, that not only does he care for each one of us, but his sheep know his voice.

Read John 10:1-18

Shepherding – A shepherd was a necessary job for a flock of sheep. The shepherd was responsible for keeping the sheep fed and together. Sometimes shepherds hired other family members to tend to the sheep. They cared for the sheep well, but sometimes a hired hand would be called in to care for the sheep and often would not care as much if one was lost or eaten. The sheep also didn’t respond as well to the hired hand, because they didn’t know his voice. 

When Jesus explains this parable, he says that he is both the gate and the shepherd:

Jesus is the Gate. 

He is the only way to the father and through Him we will have abundant, full life. 

Jesus is the Shepherd.

 

He goes before us – he knows what is ahead and is prepared to lay down his life for us. 

He knows us – He knows our hearts and what will we pray for, what our needs and desires are before we speak them.

He cares for all sheep – As a believer we are a part of the flock, but Christ desires for us all to be of one flock with one shepherd.

The sheep know his voice. "I know my sheep and my sheep know me." God created each of us and His workmanship is in all of us. We know his voice and sometimes we will hear it even when we are not listening, but if we listen he will reveal himself in the darkest places of our lives. In Luke 15, he says that if just one sheep wonders he will leave all the others to save just one sheep.  

God cares for each of you and is listening. Listen for Him...you know his voice, because you are one of his sheep. If you feel lost, know that he is seeking you. If you are walking with him, help guide others with you. I love you all. Pray it up this week!