We’re recently started a new series called “reset”. Last week, we talked about how Jesus makes it possible to reset all of life, giving us a fresh start in life that impacts every key area. We’re going to look at many of these in depth, starting this week with how Jesus resets our goals.
When my wife and I were having our first baby, we were encouraged to write birth plan. This is where you write down a plan for who’s in the room, and make choices about everything from epidurals to breastfeeding to how bright the lights should be.
I know someone who works closely with an OB, and she has some wild stories about how people let some of the small choices get in the way of the big picture. In a perfect, routine childbirth, a parent’s ideal may be to have the lights just so, no pain with no drugs, and a favourite song playing at the exact moment the child is born.
But when things don’t go perfectly, there are some people who forget the point, or the goal. They start to argue for their personal preferences, instead of arguing for a baby’s health.
When my wife and I were writing up a birth plan, we decided to stay goal focused. The goal was to have a healthy child. All our personal preferences, hopes and dreams for the birth experience were going to be expressed, but we’d drop them in an instant if things were going wrong.
That was a moment we reset our goals…to make sure they were focused on the right thing. It’s not a bad thing in life to regularly reset our goals, and ensure we’re focused on the right ones. Not just in childbirth.
We can get so bogged down in day to day tasks we forget the point in our careers. Do we live to work, or work to live?
I heard a TED Talk (attached) that shared the job description of a hospital janitor. It was what you’d expect – mop, clean, scrub, restock. It had nothing at all to do with hospital patients and healthcare. But some psychologists interviewed hospital janitors. They met one who told them about how he stopped mopping the floor because a patient was walking slowly down the hall. Another told them how she ignored her supervisor and didn’t vacuum the visitor’s lounge because there were some family members who were there all day, every day.
In the drudgery of cleaning, these janitors remembered the real goal of the hospital, and perhaps even of their human race. They reset their goals to be about more than cleaning, but about caring for others.
Question: When have you had to reset your goals? Why did you do it?
Reminder: We are reading the Bible in sync as one community – so check out today’s reading here.
Reminder: The best way to grow spiritually this year is to join our Christianity 101 in the Cafe Course in Pickering starting this Wednesday, January 22nd. Register for you and a friend today!
Read the Bible in Sync Today
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So why do Christians gather to worship week in and week out? The answer is that there are at least three very good reasons: to acknowledge God’s presence and worth, to remember that we are not alone but part of a community that is growing and learning, and to offer a visible witness to ourselves and others. But when we gather to worship for these reasons, what do we do? We celebrate!
The keynote of worship is celebration. At times in its long and winding history the church has lost its sight of this. But that is what Sunday mornings are all about—celebrating who we know God is (wow—he is our Father) --celebrating what Jesus has done for us (wow—set us free from the consequences of our sin)---celebrating that can live in relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit (wow---we are not alone).
God is a God who throws parties. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Jesus told adults to keep their eyes on the children if they wanted to know what God is like. Left on their own, adults develop strange ideas of what worship should be. …in the purely adult world, God frequently comes across as a cranky old grandfather..but children seem to know instinctively that God likes celebration.
Christians are people who are called to live in community, and we are a community of learners. We need to realize how impossible it is to be a Christian on our own, not to mention half the fun.
As Redeemer Church comes together, we’ll have three approaches to worship, in order:
Personal: We encourage you to engage in prayer, particularly on Fridays. We also hope you’ll have personal moments of worship to thank God for what happens in your life day to day.
Small Groups: As you share our challenges with friends, we hope your Friday prayers will no longer be something quiet and personal but something you share with the team. Share the moments when God was at work in your life, and pray about them!
Celebration Events: Up to now, our celebration events have been just about fun, but in a few months we’ll start to host events with worship component. We want to hear from you what will help you worship God as part of a larger community.
Challenge: Complete our online survey about worship here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8TS7K93
Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.
This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.
