J-Curve Chapter 13 — J-Curve Educational Classes

Class Description: Session 13, Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Living in the Borderland: How to Thrive in a Broken World

On the one hand, we’re born in Adam and bear the imprint of his rebellion in our lives. On the other hand, we’re reborn in Christ Jesus so even our small acts of love and obedience bear his imprint. There’s a certain madness about living in the borderland as a true citizen of the heavenly kingdom, but not yet having stepped into that good land. In this chapter we’ll explore how to live sanely in this world of “already, not yet, and right now.”

Class Notes:

1. Throughout the first several pages of this chapter PM works to help us recognize a number of differing worldviews as regards the relationship between the self and ego, or the self and pride. On p. 110 PM gives us a couple fairly helpful summary statements... Here are a few of them....

a. So both Greeks and Buddhists jettisoned the human body. Getting rid of their bodies freed them from their sin natures.

b. This understanding let the Jews distinguish between the self and the ego, between the person and the pride, making it logically possible to separate sin from self. So repentance, the forsaking of the ego, was a real possibility.

c. The Jews didn’t want to be lifted above the mess or dissolved into the impersonal All; they looked to an infinite-personal God to invade and transform their world.

i. Assuming PM’s explanation of the merging of the self and ego (pride) within Greek and Buddhist thought... Why does this merging leave no hope for the redemption/resurrection of the body?

ii. How does the separation of the self and the ego (pride) open the door to that hope?

2. P. 108 “In Figure 13A...” And corresponding diagram on p. 109

a. Does PM’s description here help us understand how pride can be separated from self so that resurrection can take place?

b. Are we reminded here of how a suffering J curve can often lead to a repentance J curve?

c. What kinds of soul-thrilling fruits accompany resurrections after pride has been put to death? What are you delighted to find your heart full of in those moments (fleeting though they may be)?

3. To get a fuller sense of what PM is about to launch into over the next several pages, it would be worth it for us to read through Romans 5:12-21.

a. P. 112 read first paragraph.

i. I love the first sentence of this paragraph. Notice that the exit strategy is not something that you and I do, it’s something that Jesus has already done. Why is that so significant?

ii. Re-read the end of the paragraph beginning w. “Every time we submit...”

1. Do we actually believe that when we live in this way we’re re-enacting Jesus’s dying love?

2. How conscious are we of re-enacting Jesus’s dying love when we’re entering someone else’s mess?

3. How would being conscious of that reality change the way we think about those little sufferings?

4. P. 112 read final two paragraphs.

a. Discuss life on the ridge between victory and defeat...

b. Pp. 112-13 2 Cor. 1:8-10 excerpt and discuss.

5. P. 114 Read entire section entitled Linking the Past and Present.

a. How do you encourage yourself that you actually do bear the imprint of your Savior when you’re tempted to doubt it?

b. “In order for love to be formed in me in the present, I must put to death what is earthly in me (Col. 3:5). So I conquer impatience not merely be repenting, but by committing to love people who are slow, tiresome, or inefficient.”

i. How does loving people who are slow, tiresome or inefficient act to actually conquer impatience? How does this work?

c. “Without the J curve, without a present participation in Jesus’s journey, I’ll merely dabble in the world of Jesus; but his world resists dabbling. In fact, I’ll coast, growing less like him as I age.”

i. This is a scary statement because I think many of us, myself included, are far too often content to dabble. How will resisting our J curves keep us in the realm of dabbling?

6. P. 115

a. #2 How can recoiling from sadness yield a fragile , jittery self?

b. #3 This paragraph was worth the price of the book by itself. Please tell me that someone else in this room what as helped by this paragraph as I was!

c. #4 “We would rather stay in death than be disappointed my hope, so we shut down our hearts from the enjoyment of even small resurrections. Fear of hope disappointing us leads us to denigrated hope, which feeds a culture of cynicism - always doubting the good.” When we’re living in this cycle, what are our lives proclaiming about God?

d. #6 How does this principle help us to battle well?