- Isaiah 55: 10-11
- Psalms 65: 10, 11, 12-13, 14
- Romans 8: 18-23
- Matthew 11: 25-30
- Fruitful or going to seed?
- What are some characteristics of someone who's led a fruitful life?
- What are some of the fruits that your life has born?
- Were those the fruits that you expected?
- Are they better than the fruits/results that you expected?
- The ultimate source
- What are some of the accomplishments that you are most proud of?
- What portions of those accomplishments were pure gift from God?
- What portions of those accomplishments were totally your contribution?
- How do you tell?
- The meaning of suffering
- Is suffering essential to our growth?
- What is it that suffering can teach us?
- How can we be more open to those lessons?
- How can we best help those who are suffering?
- Listening to more than words
- What do you think others who are close to you have learned from your life, the way that you have lived it?
- What would you like for them to lean from your life?
- How can you get that message out better?
- What fruit am I bearing for God?
- What do I have to be thankful for this week?
- How am I growing this week in faith?
- Based on my prayer life, how would I describe Jesus?
Tombstone by committee
An old man wanted to find the sum and substance of his life before he died.
So he gathered his closest family and best friends, and asked them to write his tombstone for him.
He was discouraged and depressed. His health was beginning to fail, his mind to dim,
And he wondered whether it had all really amounted to anything.
He told them not to confer with each other, but to simply write a few words of summary
And then turn them in for the man to review and turn over in his heart.
His wife of 62 years wrote "He loved even when it hurt to do so."
His daughter wrote "He knew how to make room for healing silence."
His son wrote "Dad learned that you can't fix everything, and sometimes presence is the best thing."
His manager wrote "Somehow, always found him in the right place at the right time."
A coworker wrote "The humblest man I ever knew."
One of his fellow ushers wrote "In three seconds flat, he made you feel like family!"
One of the kids that he had coached in soccer wrote: "He taught me how to truly listen and learn."
The man looked over these expressions of thanksgiving and realized how blessed he had been.
To have had so many opportunities to give himself away, and to have had so much to give.
Shalom!
So he gathered his closest family and best friends, and asked them to write his tombstone for him.
He was discouraged and depressed. His health was beginning to fail, his mind to dim,
And he wondered whether it had all really amounted to anything.
He told them not to confer with each other, but to simply write a few words of summary
And then turn them in for the man to review and turn over in his heart.
His wife of 62 years wrote "He loved even when it hurt to do so."
His daughter wrote "He knew how to make room for healing silence."
His son wrote "Dad learned that you can't fix everything, and sometimes presence is the best thing."
His manager wrote "Somehow, always found him in the right place at the right time."
A coworker wrote "The humblest man I ever knew."
One of his fellow ushers wrote "In three seconds flat, he made you feel like family!"
One of the kids that he had coached in soccer wrote: "He taught me how to truly listen and learn."
The man looked over these expressions of thanksgiving and realized how blessed he had been.
To have had so many opportunities to give himself away, and to have had so much to give.
Shalom!
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