I spent last weekend in Branson with this group of FUN ladies; this group with hearts to connect with God. What a treat! We lived together; we ate together; we enjoyed God’s gift of autumn; we shopped together; we worshiped together; we struggled together as we listened to God. Oh, and did I say, we ate together?
The DNA of godliness resided in us all as well as the desire to fertilize our spiritual growth. What a great place to be.
I’ve heard my friend Paula say that sometimes spiritual growth feels like a jig saw puzzle you are trying to do without the picture on the box top. I get that. The pieces are all there, but how do they fit together?
An apt metaphor. Each of us arrived with the DNA of godliness. But often we don’t see the beautiful picture that God sees. The pieces are all there; how do they fit together? None of us wanted the status quo to describe us spiritually; we all wanted to keep maturing. But what was the next puzzle piece? Questions surfaced we didn’t know we were asking. We left with wonderings. A great place to be.
“And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image
from one degree of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
II Corinthians 3:18 (emphasis mine)
We talked about the masks we might have been wearing as we came to the retreat. We talked about how those masks hindered friendship. We talked about the needed courage of vulnerability. “I thought I was the only one. You too?” C.S. Lewis
“Therefore consider carefully how you listen …”
Luke 8:18
We talked about listening to the truth of God’s great love for us. We talked about replacing those lies, I am a no-longer, with the truth of the word of God.
“For we are his workmanship, (our created identity)
created in Christ Jesus for good works, (our purpose)
which God prepared beforehand, (our security)
that we should walk in them.” (our pace)
Ephesians 2:10 (parentheses mine)
We talked about how we can walk together in vulnerability as we live out our identity as beloved children of God. Then we are able to encourage each other to live out the DNA God planted in them.
Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.
And walk in love …
Walk as children of light …
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise”
Ephesians 5:1, 2, 8, & 15 (emphasis mine)
Copyright: Sue Tell, October 2022