Dear Friends,

 

Christmas and New Year’s has come and gone. 2019 is underway and my feet have now hit the ground running. 

 

Tonight we start a six-week study of the book, “The Life You’ve Always Wanted” by John Ortberg. In the first chapter he writes:

 

“The goal of this book is to help us to grow spiritually. But it is hard to write about spiritual formation in a way that captures the urgency of the subject. Too often people think about their ‘spiritual lives’ as just one more aspect of their existence, alongside and largely separate from their ‘financial lives’ or their ‘vocational lives.’ Periodically they may try to ‘get their spiritual lives together’ by praying more regularly or trying to master another spiritual discipline. It is the religious equivalent of going on a diet or trying to stick to a budget. The truth is that the term spiritual life is simply a way of referring to one’s life – every moment and facet of it – from God’s perspective. Another way of saying it is this: God is not interested in your ‘spiritual life.’ God is just interested in your life.” (John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People, [Expanded ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2002), 15)

 

The goal of this study then, will be to help us understand that God cares about the whole of our lives. Our whole life is meant to be spiritual. The book helps us see where our lives are lacking spirituality and how we can weave the two together more effectively.

 

We too often divide our lives into the spiritual, the relational, the educational, the financial, the physical, etc. What would it be like to see God at work in all of it – as one spiritual, wholly and blessed life? What do we lose by such division of life? What do we gain without such division?

 

The book study will call us back to and challenge us to slowing down and celebrating (week 2), praying and confessing (week 3), meditating and seeking (week 4), practicing and finding (week 5), all while creating within us a “well-ordered heart (week 6).

 

If this interests you, I encourage you to join us on these next six Wednesday nights. Bring a friend and they too, might find it helpful as we seek together, how to live the life we’ve not only always wanted, but the life that God has created us and called to have.

 

Peace,

 

Pr. Dale