2nd Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the 2nd Sunday in Lent are:

1. Genesis 12: 1-41
2. Psalms 33: 4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
3. 2 Timothy 1: 8b-10
4. Matthew 17: 1-9

• Leaving your comfort zone
• Have you ever had to leave the familiar, the comfortable, the safe to move into something new?
• Was that always a good thing, in the long run?
• How do you define "better" when making such life changes?
• If God is leading you, is that a guarantee that it's into a "better" life?
• How do you think God defines "better"?

• Can I get the mercy without the trust?
• Complete trust is such a hard thing to achieve.  Do you think that God is able to work with 95% trust?
• Have you ever started something new, something uncertain, and kept something back "just in case"?
• Do you think that God really asks total trust of us?
• Why would He make it so hard?

• Bearing hardship
• We all have hardships, things that we have to deal with that we wish we did not have to deal with.  How do you tell which of those hardships are of God, and which are self-inflicted?
• Do you think that God brings hardships into our lives to test us, make us stronger, for the entertainment value ...?
• Do you think that God is present in, or in spite of our hardships?

• Well, when you put it that way
• Where do you hear the voice of Jesus in your daily life?
• What makes it hard to hear Him?
• What does that say about your relationship to Jesus?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I comfortable leaving my comfort zone for God?
2. Where has God been asking me to trust Him?
3. Do I trust God enough to find Him in my troubles?
4. Where/when/how do I go to listen to Jesus?

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

That if I followed Him, He would never leave me.
Which sounded well and fine, but I thought to ask:
"This presence thing, does that mean my stock picks will prosper?"

He smiled, and said "I will be with you always."
"Well, I said", if not wealth what of health.
I always fancied living long and strong.  What about health?"

He gazed upon me and said "you'll always have the strength you need."
"Need for what?  This is beginning to sound very much
Like a decidedly one sided deal here."

He stretched out his hand and said "take my hand,
Come follow me.  Wherever this journey leads,
I will be there, I will be enough, I will bear you up.

If you are truly to be my disciple,
That will have to be enough."
I thought long and hard, He was patient.

Finally I said "and what if my courage fails?"
He breathed "at the end of all your resources
Lies the beginning of real life."

Shalom!