Geri led us in this contemplative experience as a New Life staff team last week. On the “planning” retreats we take two to three times a year, we generally take a half a day focused on our internal lives with God before launching into our external work for Him. Enjoy this personally or as a team. Fire – by Judy Brown What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water would. So building fires requires attention to the spaces in between as much as the wood. When we are able to build open spaces in the same way we have learned to pile on the logs, then we can come to see how it is fuel, and absence of the fuel together, that makes fire possible. We only need lay a log lightly from time to time. A fire grows simply because the space is there, with openings in which the flame that knows just how it wants to burn can find its way. Personal Reflection Questions • When in your ministry or life in the past year have you piled on too many logs? • When has too much of a good thing been not a good thing? • What does it look like for you to create sufficient spaces in this season of your life? • What fire(s) might emerge when you allow enough space between the logs? Group Sharing in 3’s and Prayer Share out of your personal time how God came to you? What do you need from God in light of how He’s coming to you? (discipline, non-perfectionism, faith, strength, prudence…) Have the person on your right pray that for you.
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Jan
