This is week two in a five-week application of the first chapter of More Than Forgiveness by Steve DeNeff.
Every person is driven by needs; five of them as suggested by pastor and author Steve DeNeff. They are not distinctive to Christians and they cannot be eliminated. "These needs are the human being's trademark. They give him meaning and purpose. They make him human." These five needs are significance, security, innocence, intimacy and hope. And because we are affected by the Fall we seek to fill these needs in perverted and foolish ways.
In this five-week application, we take one need each week and examine how we fill it - through the fall or through holiness. The goal is not to achieve holiness in five weeks. The goal is to become self-aware and to begin building new habits that lead to subconscious transformation. At the end of each night, reflect on your day, making note of the holes that keep you from wholeness.
In week one we examined how we fill our need for significance.
This week, we look at security:
We are a people driven by fear. Not fear of spiders or heights, but deeper fears; fears that influence our decisions and actions and plans. We fear God. Only it's not a reverent fear as in "hollowed be thy name"; not the fear that inspires us to obey him. It's the fear that causes us to feel shame when we recognize he's watching, which results in us fighting for fleeing God.
When we fight him, we argue with him, redefine him, rationalize our actions or explain him away. We turn to science for answers and only to God to fill in the gaps. We turn to catch phrases like, "Life's not fair," or "That was then, this is now," and convince ourselves that's the truth. We make deals and promises we can't keep.
When we flee God, we ignore or avoid him. We plan our lives without factoring him into the equation. We use insurance to protect us from accidents, surveillance to protects us from terrorists and laws to protect us from each other.
The bottom line is we have come to fear the one thing we were told not to, "those who kill the body," and diminish the authority of "the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell".
All of this to fill our need of security. But as mentioned before, we can't make the need just go away. We must find a new way to fill it; through holiness. So instead of filling our need for security through greed and guarantees (through the Fall), we need to replace it with trust (through holiness). We must turn our fear into trust; trust in the one who knows "the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
This week, focus on ways you fill your need for security through the Fall. Here are some potential red flags:
-You demand a guarantee for something or from someone before moving forward
-You make a decision based on its long-term reliability
-You take more than your daily bread to save for tomorrow
-You avoid the path untraveled because it wasn't a "sure bet"
-You protect your treasures on Earth as if they actually belonged to you
-You take from someone else (tangibly or intangibly) in fear that they make take from you
-You refuse a challenge you are called to when the odds are against you rather than trusting that the Lord is on your side
Any others?
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Exposing Holes In Pursuit of Wholeness: Part 1 (Significance)
This is a five-week application of the first chapter in More Than Forgiveness, by Steve DeNeff.
Every person is starving, thirsting, striving. We are human beings made in the image of God. We are fallen creatures with eternity set in our hearts. We are sinful, searching for holiness. We are broken, expecting perfection. Because of the Fall we experience emptiness inside. Because we were alienated from God we turn to anything else to fill those holes.
As pastor and author Steve DeNeff explains, those holes are identified by five basic needs: significance, security, innocence, intimacy and hope. These desires themselves do not make us evil. They are distinctive to every human being. It's that we seek to fulfill these desires in foolish and perverted ways; through the Fall. The needs won't change, but how we fill them can. We will experience wholeness in Christ when we meet these needs through holiness.
For the next five weeks we will select one need and examine our hearts for six straight days, deciphering how we meet these needs: in perverse, foolish ways (through the Fall) or through holiness. Please understand, this is not a five-step program to holiness. Holiness is a deeper transformation than conscious decisions. This is merely an attempt to become aware of the ways we fill these needs and when we are most vulnerable to succumb to the Fall.
Read the description of the need (adapted from the first chapter of DeNeff's book) and my predictions of how we may fill it perversely. At the end of each night during the week, reflect on your day and write down occasions when you filled the need through the Fall. By the end of the week, hopefully we can avoid these temptations and begin building habits that will lead to subconscious transformation.
We'll start with significance.
We all want to matter, to be acknowledged, to be important; we all want dignity. Through the Fall we fill this need through pecking orders and hierarchy; we climb the ladder through any means necessary; we build ourselves up and tear others down; we are competitive, suspicious and critical; we are busy; we are aching to impress others and ourselves; we fill our need of significance through power and pride.
But in holiness, we satisfy this need through service and humility. "We still want to matter, but to whom we matter is less important." We give credit to others, seeking only the praise of God. We don't think less of ourselves, we think of ourselves less. We carry each other's burdens, and at the same time, we are not a burden to others. We no longer want something else or something more, we accept what we're given and "seek only to accomplish what we were destined to accomplish."
The question this week: Where do you find significance? Through power and pride or through service and humility?
Here are some situations inspired by the Fall that may pop up this week:
--You verbally tear someone else down to elevate yourself. You may not raise, but they lower. And they may not even be present when you do it!
--You take credit for something you didn't do or without acknowledging those who made it possible.
--You announce your own accomplishments (Proverbs 27:2)
--You make obstacles seem larger than they were to inflate the magnitude of the accomplishment.
--You take ownership of something that's not yours.
--You order someone to help you rather than offering to help them.
--You point the finger rather than take responsibility.
--You seek praise and acknowledgement from the top of the food chain, and ignore those on the bottom.
Any others?
Don't beat yourself up, but take notice of how you fill your emptiness. This will be an incredible, transforming journey. Enjoy the ride!
Every person is starving, thirsting, striving. We are human beings made in the image of God. We are fallen creatures with eternity set in our hearts. We are sinful, searching for holiness. We are broken, expecting perfection. Because of the Fall we experience emptiness inside. Because we were alienated from God we turn to anything else to fill those holes.
As pastor and author Steve DeNeff explains, those holes are identified by five basic needs: significance, security, innocence, intimacy and hope. These desires themselves do not make us evil. They are distinctive to every human being. It's that we seek to fulfill these desires in foolish and perverted ways; through the Fall. The needs won't change, but how we fill them can. We will experience wholeness in Christ when we meet these needs through holiness.
For the next five weeks we will select one need and examine our hearts for six straight days, deciphering how we meet these needs: in perverse, foolish ways (through the Fall) or through holiness. Please understand, this is not a five-step program to holiness. Holiness is a deeper transformation than conscious decisions. This is merely an attempt to become aware of the ways we fill these needs and when we are most vulnerable to succumb to the Fall.
Read the description of the need (adapted from the first chapter of DeNeff's book) and my predictions of how we may fill it perversely. At the end of each night during the week, reflect on your day and write down occasions when you filled the need through the Fall. By the end of the week, hopefully we can avoid these temptations and begin building habits that will lead to subconscious transformation.
We'll start with significance.
We all want to matter, to be acknowledged, to be important; we all want dignity. Through the Fall we fill this need through pecking orders and hierarchy; we climb the ladder through any means necessary; we build ourselves up and tear others down; we are competitive, suspicious and critical; we are busy; we are aching to impress others and ourselves; we fill our need of significance through power and pride.
But in holiness, we satisfy this need through service and humility. "We still want to matter, but to whom we matter is less important." We give credit to others, seeking only the praise of God. We don't think less of ourselves, we think of ourselves less. We carry each other's burdens, and at the same time, we are not a burden to others. We no longer want something else or something more, we accept what we're given and "seek only to accomplish what we were destined to accomplish."
The question this week: Where do you find significance? Through power and pride or through service and humility?
Here are some situations inspired by the Fall that may pop up this week:
--You verbally tear someone else down to elevate yourself. You may not raise, but they lower. And they may not even be present when you do it!
--You take credit for something you didn't do or without acknowledging those who made it possible.
--You announce your own accomplishments (Proverbs 27:2)
--You make obstacles seem larger than they were to inflate the magnitude of the accomplishment.
--You take ownership of something that's not yours.
--You order someone to help you rather than offering to help them.
--You point the finger rather than take responsibility.
--You seek praise and acknowledgement from the top of the food chain, and ignore those on the bottom.
Any others?
Don't beat yourself up, but take notice of how you fill your emptiness. This will be an incredible, transforming journey. Enjoy the ride!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Identity --> Mission --> Community
This post is coming as a result of a multi-year journey, which started with a search for community and is culminating in the revelation of identity. Along the way, many influences have pushed me towards this truth, most recently, Chris McAllister, who has helped me paint the picture of the connection between identity, mission and community.
A secure identity in Christ leads to a clarity of mission, which attracts and builds community.
We often get this process out of order and it frustrates the core desire we have to become the person Christ has created us to be.
As relational beings we set out in search of community to fill our innate need for intimacy and acceptance; to be known and understood and to belong. When we find that community we latch on to it for the need that it fills; we adopt its mission as our own in order to not lose touch with that communal relationship and to not lose that fill of intimacy. Or sometimes, as often seen in the case of small groups or in the church, we decide as a group to engage in a service project (mission) to feel significant, worthwhile and to fill our internal obligation to do good deeds.
Do you see the difference? The community dictates the mission, which forms our identity.
It usually goes undetected for a short while, but over time we begin to feel the friction between our true identity and this fabricated mission. Commitment demands increase and over the long haul the facade we construct for each gathering wears down. In time, frustration builds and we become unsettled, realizing this is not where we are supposed to be. But we're stuck, clinging to the intimacy offered by the community and the significance and worth found in the group and the mission.
There is a way out. Flip the order of the process. What is your deepest need? Examine your heart. Examine your mission, what you are doing and why you are doing it. Examine your community. What needs are they filling? What do they provide? Significance? Worth? Intimacy?
Now, turn to Jesus for these needs. Instead of striving for worldly things to fill you, let Jesus fill these holes in your heart. When he meets your needs - and he will, to the fullest extent, more satisfying than any earthly channel - you won't go to work everyday with something to prove; you won't push others down to build yourself up; days won't be an endless fight straining for something you can't obtain on your own.
The Samaritan woman in John 4 goes to the well for water everyday to quench her thirst (the need). Symbolically, Jesus instructs her to turn to him to fill that need eternally (v 10). When we fill our needs through worldly things the need will persist (v 13), but when Jesus fills that need eternally it will well up from inside us, giving new life (v 14). Through that new life comes clarity in mission, new life in your mission. It flows out of who you are.
Finally, a laser-focused mission attracts and builds community. People who are secure in their identity and people who are laser-focused in their mission are contagious. Others flock to them. And through a laser-focused mission we actively build community to accomplish what we were born to do.
Think of Jesus. His healings and miracles attracted droves of people. And as he started his mission he recruited disciples to help carry it out. Also notice he controlled his community. He sent some back home after they were healed. He retreated to solitary places and to his disciples. He even kept some around who weren't on board with the mission (Judas Iscariot), but everything he did was with the mission in mind, flowing out of his identity in the Father.
Jesus found intimacy not among the disciples, but in communion with the Father. He found worth not in healings and miracles, but through the Father. He found significance not as King of the Jews, but as the Father's son.
A secure identity in Christ overflows into a laser-focused mission, which attracts and builds community, the very things you are superficially longing for.
I am not an expert. I communicate visions. Chris McAlister is an expert. If you want to dig more into this topic, read his blog. Also, over the next five weeks I will be posting about recognizing holes on a journey to wholeness. It will help lead to a secure identity. Stay tuned.
A secure identity in Christ leads to a clarity of mission, which attracts and builds community.
We often get this process out of order and it frustrates the core desire we have to become the person Christ has created us to be.
As relational beings we set out in search of community to fill our innate need for intimacy and acceptance; to be known and understood and to belong. When we find that community we latch on to it for the need that it fills; we adopt its mission as our own in order to not lose touch with that communal relationship and to not lose that fill of intimacy. Or sometimes, as often seen in the case of small groups or in the church, we decide as a group to engage in a service project (mission) to feel significant, worthwhile and to fill our internal obligation to do good deeds.
Do you see the difference? The community dictates the mission, which forms our identity.
It usually goes undetected for a short while, but over time we begin to feel the friction between our true identity and this fabricated mission. Commitment demands increase and over the long haul the facade we construct for each gathering wears down. In time, frustration builds and we become unsettled, realizing this is not where we are supposed to be. But we're stuck, clinging to the intimacy offered by the community and the significance and worth found in the group and the mission.
There is a way out. Flip the order of the process. What is your deepest need? Examine your heart. Examine your mission, what you are doing and why you are doing it. Examine your community. What needs are they filling? What do they provide? Significance? Worth? Intimacy?
Now, turn to Jesus for these needs. Instead of striving for worldly things to fill you, let Jesus fill these holes in your heart. When he meets your needs - and he will, to the fullest extent, more satisfying than any earthly channel - you won't go to work everyday with something to prove; you won't push others down to build yourself up; days won't be an endless fight straining for something you can't obtain on your own.
The Samaritan woman in John 4 goes to the well for water everyday to quench her thirst (the need). Symbolically, Jesus instructs her to turn to him to fill that need eternally (v 10). When we fill our needs through worldly things the need will persist (v 13), but when Jesus fills that need eternally it will well up from inside us, giving new life (v 14). Through that new life comes clarity in mission, new life in your mission. It flows out of who you are.
Finally, a laser-focused mission attracts and builds community. People who are secure in their identity and people who are laser-focused in their mission are contagious. Others flock to them. And through a laser-focused mission we actively build community to accomplish what we were born to do.
Think of Jesus. His healings and miracles attracted droves of people. And as he started his mission he recruited disciples to help carry it out. Also notice he controlled his community. He sent some back home after they were healed. He retreated to solitary places and to his disciples. He even kept some around who weren't on board with the mission (Judas Iscariot), but everything he did was with the mission in mind, flowing out of his identity in the Father.
Jesus found intimacy not among the disciples, but in communion with the Father. He found worth not in healings and miracles, but through the Father. He found significance not as King of the Jews, but as the Father's son.
A secure identity in Christ overflows into a laser-focused mission, which attracts and builds community, the very things you are superficially longing for.
I am not an expert. I communicate visions. Chris McAlister is an expert. If you want to dig more into this topic, read his blog. Also, over the next five weeks I will be posting about recognizing holes on a journey to wholeness. It will help lead to a secure identity. Stay tuned.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Finding Your Wheelhouse
I'm narrowing in on my wheelhouse and it's an invigorating process! It's that place where you're doing what you know you were created to do. I'll explain what I mean by explaining my choice of terminology.
I'm a basketball guy. So why didn't I say, "I'm working towards a slam dunk," instead of venturing into baseball terminology? Because a "slam dunk" comes across as easy, a sure thing, no sweat. And that couldn't be farther from the truth.
The wheelhouse is that sweet spot for a baseball player at the plate where a home run is nearly guaranteed. It's when a perfect strike right down the middle meets perfect timing from the batter. But even then it's not a sure thing. It requires intense focus and concentration, wiping out all distractions to keep your eye on the ball. It requires all of the parts move in harmony; the coil, the leg kick, step, rotate the hips, swing, make contact, follow through.
Ask a hitter. When you make contact you immediately know it's going out of the park. The perfect pitch combined with intense focus combined with all of your strength. It's powerful. It's game changing. And at that moment, he knows:
That's my wheelhouse. That's when I'm at my best.
How do you find your wheelhouse? Stay tuned...
I'm a basketball guy. So why didn't I say, "I'm working towards a slam dunk," instead of venturing into baseball terminology? Because a "slam dunk" comes across as easy, a sure thing, no sweat. And that couldn't be farther from the truth.
The wheelhouse is that sweet spot for a baseball player at the plate where a home run is nearly guaranteed. It's when a perfect strike right down the middle meets perfect timing from the batter. But even then it's not a sure thing. It requires intense focus and concentration, wiping out all distractions to keep your eye on the ball. It requires all of the parts move in harmony; the coil, the leg kick, step, rotate the hips, swing, make contact, follow through.
Ask a hitter. When you make contact you immediately know it's going out of the park. The perfect pitch combined with intense focus combined with all of your strength. It's powerful. It's game changing. And at that moment, he knows:
That's my wheelhouse. That's when I'm at my best.
How do you find your wheelhouse? Stay tuned...
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