In the Moment (Part 3): When It Happens Again...
TO START
Invite the group to share something meaningful that happened to them this past week.
Why was it meaningful? Was it spontaneous or planned? How did it come about?
TO DISCUSS
This week, as we continued the sermon series, “In the Moment”, Zane invited us to consider the times when “what if’s” bounce around in our heads because of the reality that in our day to day, a plethora of things out of our control happen to be working against us causing us to strain to simply get by.
What experience in your life this week has felt straining or even torturous? What in your week has been out of your control that has really taken a lot out of you?
Staying on the topic of lack of control, Zane speaks to the fact that many of our what ifs come from fear and the way it invades our decisions in the moment, Zane quoted the Belgian writer Bieke Vaderkerchkhove, who speaks specifically to how fear in the midst of terminal illness has tortured her… Read her quote below:
“Most often, there’s nothing we can do to lighten or release it. Fear paralyzes us, and this paralysis is the very thing which robs us of the strength we would need to combat it. We can beat a drum, rage in profanity, or cry tears, but fear remains. The object of our fear doesn’t go away simply because we wish it away. Fear can only be suffered. We have to live with it until it recedes on its own.
Is it hard for you to not be paralyzed by what ifs and the inability to know exactly what’s coming? Why is it so hard?
What tends to be your go-to outlet in regards to the paralyzing feeling that comes with fears?
While this lesson has seemed utterly dark and painful and as if there’s nowhere to go, thankfully, life with God offers us something different in the moments where fear paralyzes us… In particular, this week Zane took us to a moment in Mark that gets to the heart of our struggles with fear and control. Read Mark 6:45-52
How does your understanding of fear change when you realize that God’s main activity in our lives with fear isn’t always to remove it, but rather he gets in the boat with us to navigate it? Have you seen this happen in your life?
Furthermore, Zane points us to a specific moment where Jesus reminds the Disciples of the story just before this moment with the Disciples on the water, in v. 52, Mark says, “for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.” Jesus had just turned a measly set of loaves and fish into enough to feed thousands and yet in this moment, the fear of the Disciples has choked out the faithfulness of God in the past.
Do you feel like your heart is hardened at this moment? What are the signs that indicate to you that your heart is or isn’t hardened?
How can you keep your heart from being hardened by your current fears and present situation? How can you keep from allowing your present fears to make you forget God’s faithfulness?
TO CLOSE:
We want to invite y’all to pray together with the words that Zane offered Sunday and to give space for group members to share what’s on their hearts. We invite y’all to have someone lead the first part of the prayer, leave space in the middle and then have someone close with the reminder of God's faithfulness in the past and presence in the present and future.
Start: God, I’m thankful for how people bring their lives into this space with you.
Can you illuminate our hearts?
Remind us of how you’ve been here with us this week.
God, may you hear our hearts as we bring to you what we’ve been fearful of
And what has hardened our hearts… Lord, hear our prayers.
Middle: (Leave space here to invite group members to silently or
openly share what we are fearful of and what has hardened our hearts)
Close: “God, Life with you is an invitation to trust in your faithfulness in our tears.
It’s a life of opening our hearts instead of closing them.
It’s a life of not forgetting the bread.
It’s a life of trusting there will be ice in the morning.
It’s a life of being brave in the present because of God’s presence in the past
It’s a life of remembering that whatever in the present moment is ahead of us Jesus is coming to us along the horizon.”
Amen.