“Lord,
I believe,” John
9:38
On
Sunday, September 13 at 9:00 and 10:30 we begin BELIEVE, a Churchwide Spiritual
Growth Experience
For
more years than I wish to recount I have been all too aware of the difference
between what I believe in my mind (head knowledge) and what my behaviors and
attitudes reveal about what I actually believe.
For it is what I actually do that reveals what I actually believe.
Life
has given me unequivocal evidence that head knowledge is not enough.
More often than I wish to admit, what I believe intellectually is trumped
by emotions which drive me to behaviors which are the diametric opposite of what
I say I believe.
This
means that what we believe must make the longest journey that exists, the
journey from the head to the heart, from the mind to the emotions, from my brain
to my chest, the “seat” of my will, passions, and drive.
It is there, through disciplined training, that what I believe
intellectually is lived experientially.
It
is from there that I actually live out what I believe.
“Without
the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal
organism.
The
head rules the belly through the chest—the seat . . . . of emotions organized
by trained habit . . . these are the indispensable liaison officers between
cerebral man and visceral man. It may even be said that it is by this middle
element that man is man:
(But)
we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and
expect of them virtue and enterprise.”
C.S. Lewis,
The Abolition of Man
This
quote hits home with me. The
Christian life cannot be lived from the head.
It must be lived through “the chest”.
It is this “organ”, what I call my “Believer”, the thing in me
that drives my actions. What I
need is a trained “believer”, a “believer” in “my chest” that is
trained to believe what my head accepts as true and then drives believing
actions, attitudes and behaviors.
Beginning
September 13 we will begin the journey of discovering not only what a Christian
believes, but we will be enter into training which will give us the
“chests”, the “heart” to actually live what we believe.
In
order for this 30 week spiritual experience to work for you, you will want to
purchase two books for yourself and also resources for your family so that you
can enter this experience together. These
resources are listed below and are available on Sundays in the Lobby or during
the week through the Church office.
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
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