J-Curve Session 29: (Pastor Matt Carter, Chapter 29)
Class Description: Session 29, Chapter 29
Chapter 29: Seeing the Big Picture: Multiyear Dying and Rising
During some of my lowest years, I tuned myself into the “resurrection channel” by beginning the early morning habit of reviewing the previous day and thanking God for little mercies, little resurrections. When everything was dark, the Spirit prompted me to hunt for life.
Class Notes:
1. Pp 234-235 connecting paragraph.
a. Surely Paul must’ve had flashbacks to the riot in Philippi. He’d learned to be on the lookout for resurrections even in the midst of absolute chaos. One of the signs that we’re growing in Christlikeness is perhaps the shortening of the time between when we’re experiencing suffering and when we’re looking for resurrections even as we embrace that suffering. Discuss.
2. Pp 235-36 connecting paragraph and down to the breakout quote.
a. Do we agree w. PM here? Have we lost the narrative? Do we agree that fighting to regain the narrative is lost cause? Discuss.
b. How do we prioritize the battles we fight?
c. Comment on this quote: It keeps us from returning to the macho Christianity of the past, where we are going to “Take the hill.”
d. Read the following paragraph on p 236: What do you expect the ongoing decline of culture in the US to accomplish in the American Church?
3. P 236 Our willingness to die, to receive the death God has given us, keeps us from running from suffering. We outfox evil by receiving what it threatens us with.
a. How does learning to live like this rewrite the narrative, not only for us, but for those around us?
4. P 238 Look at the diagram then this quote: Almost everyone I’ve seen who has been trapped by bitterness has focused on the big dying and been blind to the multiple mini-resurrections in their lives. Almost counterintuitively, the most thankful and happy people I know are confined to wheelchairs.
a. Interesting, what PM is discussing here is, on one hand, a character that can be developed, but it is also a skill. How could you and I develop this ability to focus on multi mini-resurrections?
b. Consider this quote as part of this thinking: During some of my lowest years, I tuned myself into the “resurrection channel” by beginning the early morning habit of reviewing the previous day and thanking God for little mercies, little resurrections. When everything was dark, the Spirit prompted me to hunt for life.
5. P 240 Look at the parallels b/t Jesus’ and Paul’s lives.
a. Have you ever seen them before?
b. How does do these parallels inform the ways you view your own J curves? (Consider Philippians 3:7-11 as we discuss).
6. P 241 Look at the diagrams then this quote: Seeing little victories, mini-resurrections like these, encourages us when “the big thing” still hangs over our head.
a. The concept that PM has been discussing throughout the chapter is really a fairly simply idea. We need to train ourselves to be on the lookout while we’re enduring lengthy suffering to recognize mini-resurrections. Are we actually learning how to do this? Have you recognized any mini-resurrections in your own life lately?