From more to More

Hello again everyone! We had a great time Thursday night at McAllister Center. If you were there, please feel free to comment on this entry, if you were not, we hope to see you next time, 3/19 from 6:45-8:00 PM!

We began our time, as usual, decompressing from the craziness of the day, by simply answering a question, for fun - this time proposed by Nicole Gaylord. "If you could live anywhere, where would it be?" We had a variety of answers, from "right here" to San Diego, to Florida, to Italy, to Oklahoma, but the consensus seemed to be that we would want to take those we loved with us, or it wouldn't be ok to move.

We then spent some time, as always, noticing the coolness and wonder of God. You see, we feel we spend far too much time in numbness of life, too much time in the "in between" moments of life - those at work and running here and there, looking to achieve and become and all that.
We miss the awesomeness of life and of the God who has given life. So, we take time each get together to notice the wonder.
Tonight's time of noticing the wonder of God was all about perspective. We first looked at a hologram image of Cinderella from my daughter Sophia's room. You have seen the pictures before where if you move it side to side you see Cinderella in rags and then transformed into the ball gown. This reminds us that when we look at things differently, we may see something brand new. Then we went out into the hall and had Rick Epsteen (a rather big guy) walk all the way to the other end of the hall. We looked closely and then had him walk back. When he was at the end if the hall, a child might have said that he was small, but we all knew he was big, but the perspective was just different. We then each got a golf ball. We tossed them gently into the air, felt them, bounced them on the tile floor and generally felt the relative lack of danger of them in their smallness. But then we all considered that if my 8 yr old son Nathan had a golf club about to hit one of those balls, or if one was coming at you at 100 miles per hour, in the change of perspective we would realize an entirely different significance to the golf balls. We then shared a scene from Dead Poets Society, one of my favorite movies, except the end, which I must admit I rarely watch. In the scene, John Keating, a teacher at an uppity New England prep school stands on his desk as his students come into the room. They are bothered by the change, but enter and take their seats. As the class starts, he asks, "Why do I stand on my desk?" They respond, "To be taller?" "AAAAnnnnnhhhh, thanks for playing. I stand on my desk to remind myself that we must always look at life from different perspectives." Finally I told the story of our recent drive in the country when a helicopter was flying by us and then went off further and further away until in the words of Nathan, "It's a speck on that cloud!"
The point of all this was to illustrate 2 things: 1) That we, as adults, have an ability to understand things in complicated and diverse ways. We can see the perspectives in things very well. We are made so amazingly, that it comes naturally to us that the golf ball is dangerous if coming fast and not when it is in our hands. That the helicopter and Rick are the same size whether they appear to big when they are close or small when they are far away. This is amazing. God has made us naturally this way. It is something to notice and celebrate. 2) We realize that looking at things differently and appreciating perspectives may allow us to have more wonder and joy in life, depending on how much we are willing to break with our routine of thought and step up onto the desk/view Cinderella's gown. I invite you to begin noticing the wonder of God all around you by inviting Him to change your perspectives.

Next, each time we get together, we take time to notice each other. We care about each other very much and believe that when we share things with each other and invite God into the middle of them, they are better - sometimes literally and sometimes our perspective on them. So, we spent some time sharing concerns and then asked God to be involved in our lives. It was good.

Last, we had some time of learning. In the past 9 months or so, we have been talking about the name More than more. We have discussed at length all the things people in our world run after. We have had guest speakers come and tell us how pursuing money, success, pleasure, relationships have ended them up feeling lonely, nervous, lost and empty. And how, after all that, when they shifted their focus to God and invited Him into their world, their life had meaning and joy and purpose. Not that all was perfect, simply it was right.
The people of the group, after all this time, have come to agree that going after these "mores" that we see in the world around us simply is not what our hearts cry out for...but that they cry for the God that made them. We have begun trying to "invite God into our world" and "notice Him" This has changed the people in the group. They have more joy and wonder and peace than when they started. But still we struggle many days with our inability to be all that we fell we should be.
Along those lines, recently, it occurred to me that this journey, this change of course, from "more" to "More" is not easy. It is filled with difficulty and ups and downs. It is not "once and for all" It involves failing a lot and feeling discouraged some, just like it involves more joy and satisfaction. The real truthful journey is not a cake walk.
So, we spent some time introducing a new group of talks about "What does the transition from "more" to "More" look like? We named some of the feelings and experiences that we have had as we have tried to change our pursuit to God. We discussed that over time, our perspectives change, little by little and that, as we notice an issue with us, and invite God into it, He comes in and helps with healing in the issue and changes our perspective.
I told the story of sitting on my father's grave and writing and reading and weeping as I invited, and God took the mistakes my father had made with his (and my) life and brought healing into them and allowed me to see them from a different perspective - and I will never view my father in the same way.
So, in the following weeks we will be talking more about what it means, in real life, to make the change from pursuing the "mores" of the world to pursuing the "More" of God. It will not be all rosy and cute, but it will be real and wonderful and the result is the best, the only, way to really live!

We hope you can join us!