Oh my...I think I'm done with the fall 2012 growth group catalog. (Growth groups are small groups at the church I attend/work for (EastLake) that happen 3 times a year, they can be anything from a book study to a girls' night out and anything and everything in between. They're led by volunteers and they ROCK!)
Hal.le.lujah!!! I'm to that point now where I can't objectively edit it anymore, I've combed through it so many times that it all seems to blend together. I think that's a sign I need to be satisfied with it and call it good. We have 29 groups and they are an AWESOME mix of study, activity, and service groups. So. Excited.
I was bored and poking through some of my old Facebook posts and came across a note I wrote back in November 2011, while I was participating in a fall group about a book called TrueFaced. It still resonates with me so I wanted to share it here. In a nutshell, it's about how much God can change your entire perspective on life, once you've realized you can trust Him. And then you find other people you can share your messes of life with, people who are just as broken but believe in something greater than themselves. Those people become family when they start to do life together-and growth groups are where that happens.
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"If it is unerringly true that each of us enjoys only the love we will allow in, and if it is equally true that God went to unending lengths to bring us love in a way that we would allow in, then it becomes stunningly obvious that the carriers of God's love ought to be wildly driven to learn to give his love in a way that can be easily put on.
To give a love that can be trusted changes everything. This is where life gets worth living. It jump-starts one of the most profoundly beautiful and miraculous chain reactions we get to witness in this lifetime. Closed, broken, frightened, bluffing men and women come squinting out of dark corners into the light and start singing songs they didn't know were in them. They begin to feel alive-secure in his embrace, seeing life for the first time in full color. Actually allowing this love past their double-bolted defenses, they wonder out loud what took them so long. Each one becomes real, safe, creative, and refreshingly untamed. They drink this love in like those gulping down cold, fresh lemonade for the first time. And they almost involuntarily begin to offer to all around them a love as rich and freeing as what they are taking in. They discover a waiting, thirsty community everywhere they look. And the world arond them dramatically changes, one drink at a time..."
-from Truefaced
This, to me, is what EastLake is all about. A church family growing in their faith together, leaning into one another for support while learning how to trust God for the first time, or the tenth time, or the hundreth time because all those other times were built on a foundation of good intentions but not grace. One of the biggest takeaways I've received from my time with this book is this: needs are not weaknesses. It goes against society norms to admit to people out loud, "I need x,y, or z." But the amazing thing about churches like EastLake is that it's okay to admit that we've all got our junk we're working through. No one is perfect. And we wouldn't want anyone to be. How incredibly freeing.
Healing for me began when I could open up to a handful of women and let them see the broken pieces of my heart-and they didn't judge, or ridicule, or pity me. God used them to help me reshape those pieces into something different, but still beautiful. If you're still searching and live in Lawrence or the surrounding area...man, this is a great place to SEE God's love in action. Because once it really gets into your head that grace is something you'll NEVER lose once you put your faith in God, and that it IS possible to love deeper and better than you've ever known, all because you know how much He loved you first...it changes everything.
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