J-Curve Session 12: (Pastor Matt Carter, Chapter 12)
Class Description: Session 12, Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Life at the Bottom of the J Curve: Making Sense of Persistent Evil
It’d be easy to assume that once a resurrection has taken place following some particular suffering, that the suffering has served its purpose and should be removed. So often that is not the case. Let’s consider today how we should be thinking when the suffering simply continues.
Class Notes:
J Curve Session #12
· Think about our cascade of love from last week. Did you see any J Curves weaving together throughout this past week?
Chapter 12: Life at the Bottom of the J Curve: Making Sense of Persistent Evil
It’d be easy to assume that once a resurrection has taken place following some particular suffering, that the suffering has served its purpose and should be removed. So often that is not the case. Let’s consider today how we should be thinking when the suffering simply continues.
1. Pp. 100-101 Read entire section entitled ‘Paul’s Flesh’.
a. Did these paragraphs spark an ‘aha moment’ for any of us? “This exact thing has happened to me!”
b. Often when we’re experiencing our sin nature in this way, it’s tempting to think that our experience is unique - that other Christians are moving beyond their battle with sin in ways that we’re not. That said, these insightful paragraphs provide us with a few helpful ways of thinking:
i. The reassurance that our experience is in fact not unique. The tidy-looking Christians around us experience this same relentless battle with their own sin on a daily basis. We haven’t been singled out, and we need not experience shame in our ongoing battle! How many of us have thought when we’ve experienced this dynamic, “I should be further along in my sanctification than this.”?
ii. When we begin to understand that this is how the sin nature, and our battle with the sin nature looks, it has the potential to change how we view the layout of the battlefield. Our expectations begin to align with reality.
2. Before working through this next section of the J Curve, let’s open in our Bibles to feel the scope of where PM is about to take us. 2 Cor. 12:1-10.
a. Read P. 102 “Jesus is saying... - God pours out his power.”
i. Let’s do business with the first paragraph in that section... What would you and I need to believe in order to actually embrace the thorns that the Lord sends into our lives.
ii. “Down low, at the bottom of the J Curve, pride is stripped from Paul. As he cries out for grace, he becomes like Jesus, who can’t do life on his own (John 5:19).” Do we actually believe this about our Savior? Do we actually believe that he lived a life of obedience by faith? (consider Heb. 2:11-18 & 4:14-16)
iii. “Paul’s poverty of spirit, then, becomes the launching pad for the power of Jesus in his life, and he experiences the real-time resurrection.” Have you ever entered some ministry completely poured out and weak? In those instances, have you ever cried out in prayer for God’s help and seen him show up in ways he likely wouldn’t have if you’d have been feeling strong?
3. P. 102 Look below at the 2 Cor. excerpt and the diagram on p 103. Describe Paul’s resurrection here.
4. Pp. 103-4 Connecting paragraph.
a. Do you remember when Covid began a year ago? Do you remember people speculating that it would last a few weeks or months? Have you heard recently any reports on how long we should expect to be dealing with the virus? Have you noticed how trials in your life seem to often linger much, much longer than you thought they would?
b. PM uses an extraordinary phrase in this paragraph... “ongoing miracle of a humble heart...” A humble heart hardly seems miraculous, but I think PM is on to something here. Why is a consistently humble heart far from commonplace?
5. P. 104 “But God gave us a harmed baby...” through end of paragraph.
a. Why was prideful independence more dangerous than Kim’s disability?
6. P. 104 “With the map of the J Curve, Paul doesn’t get lost in suffering. The narrative of the cross captures evil and puts it to work in resurrection.”
a. How is this working in our lives these days? Are we learning how not to get stuck at the bottom of our J Curves by anticipating resurrection?
7. P. 105 “A wheelchair is an....”
a. Do you have any difficulties in your life that you’re struggling to identify as thorns?
8. P. 106 Final paragraph. “As important as faith is, unless we are actively reenacting Jesus’s life, pride with regrow. Boasting is removed in principle at the cross; in practice, it is removed as we re-enact the cross. To see Jesus, we must do Jesus.” - This quote makes me think of Philippians 3:7-11.
9. P. 107 top paragraph.
a. What did resurrection look like for PM in this incident where he didn’t get the credit for his work?
10. Throughout the balance of p. 107 PM is talking about dying events that seem disconnected from resurrection events. He talks about learning to see the connections between them. Does this section make sense to you? Can you see how the plane ride to Florida with Kim was disconnected, and yet produced a resurrection in PM at the conference - a disconnected event?