V.  Where am I going with my life now? Home Over the past five weeks, we have journeyed together and discovered who we were, who we are and now we are exploring the future with the question: where am I going? God has been with you since you began this journey years ago and God goes before you in the future, for wherever you are, God is. The question of “where I am going?” is a discernment question. We are always discerning, or figuring out and listening to what God is leading us to do and how we are called to share who we are with others. This session will explore how we “live into” this question daily, listen to what God is up to, and make decisions based on where God is leading us!

A.  Stop & Listen.  “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.” —Jeremiah 29:11-13 B.  Discovery Write a mission statement for how you want to live your life from this point on. Share it with the rest of your small group and ask for feedback and dialogue about how you will live this out in your day to day life! C.  Reflection Read through the following questions and sit with them before you write down your answers. After the eight weeks of reflection on your journey, where do you see yourself going? How will you make decisions in your life journey? Who are the people who will support and love you and how will you ask them to support and love you in the years to come? If you can articulate who you are in a couple of sentences, what would you say?

Food For Thought “And so Luther took that word, “vocation”, meaning divine calling, and applied it to all Christians in their roles and places of responsibility.” -- Mark Kolden, A Christian's Calling in the World “As soon as I think of my neighbor, all vocations no longer stand on a common plane, but a certain vocation come to the fore as mine. One important fact in God’s providence is that I have the neighbor I have.” -- Martin Luther in Gustaf Wingren's Luther on Vocation Now I become myself. It's taken time, many years and places. I have been dissolved and shaken, Worn other people's faces. . . . -- May Sarton, "Now I Become Myself," in Collected Poems, 1930-1973 "We arrive in this world with birthright gifts -- then we spend the first half of our lives abandoning them or letting others disabuse us of them. . . .Then -- if we are awake, aware, and able to admit our loss -- we spend the second half trying to recover and reclaim the gift we once possessed." (12) -- Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak:  Listening for the Voice of Vocation. Film:  Waking Ned Devine Two old men who attempt to win the lottery turns into riches for an entire village. What started out as a selfish search for riches turns into something of celebration and sharing on the parts of many people. Gives values to questions like, how are we connected to one another? What do we really value? How might our dreams change? Or how might what we want out of life change? Music:  Faithful to Me by Jennifer Knapp, Kansas All the chisels I've dulled carving idols of stone That have crumbled like sand 'neath the waves. I've recklessly built all my dreams in the sand just to watch, them all wash away. more "And this is my prayer, that y our love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God." -- Philippians 1:9-11 What is discernment? "[C]ritical reflection in faith and humility that enables us to more fully be disciples of Jesus Christ and fulfill the call to be men and women of love."(25) Discernment is a discriminating choice between two or more good options. Discernment honors previous decisions and commitments. Discernment always seeks what is best for today. Discernment is not a matter of curiosity but of decision Discernment is an individual and conditional matter. -- Gordon T. Smith, Listening to God in Times of Choice I asked God for strength, that I might achieve, I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity, that I might to better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy, I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men, I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for—but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, Most richly blessed. --Anonymous Confederate Soldier Music:  Down to the River to Pray by Allison, O Brother, Where Art Thou? As I went down to the river to pray Studyin about that good ol' way and who shall wear the starry crown? Good Lord show me the way! more