Session 3: Glory 01/27/2010
 
There is something more glorious about your life than you know.  Does that feel true?  The fulfillment of mystery: a yet undiscovered, unique splendor that reflects the glory of the Lord through your life.  This idea is uniquely captured in the Paul Potts video (view it again below or by visiting it at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA).


Awkward and unassuming, Paul stands in front of a packed auditorium that seems all-too-ready to pronounce its verdict on his life.  And then he opens his mouth (chipped tooth and all) and his glory is revealed.  The crowd gasps and reacts, tears well, mouths gape open...the judges are perplexed, bemused, and ultimately won over.

And, if you watch carefully, even as Paul stands grinning amidst overwhelming applause, his glory is just as quickly replaced with self doubt.  Even he cannot believe this is true.

Are you not affected by this 4-minute snapshot of a man living into the glory of his life?  Hold captive that feeling and then remember Gary's words: "Your calling is the affect of your life."

Isa. 61:3,4 "They will be called oaks of righteousness, a...display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."

Living into our glory is our fulfillment of God's plan for our life. We are the rebuilders...the restorers. Though our daily life often feels more like "sin less, work harder and give more" we are invited into a journey of ever-increasingness (2 Cor. 3:18) ... to become oak's of righteousness!


Some questions to consider and take to the Lord this week:

1) Are you discerning the difference between your Calling, Role, and Assignment(s)?
  • Calling: letting the world around you experience the weightiness of your life
  • Role: father, son, husband, provider - be what you are; not your calling but your role
  • Assignments: places God sends you that need your glory, your weightiness
2) Are you burdened and tired (a way that God reveals that we aren't living the life we are supposed to be living) and simply reacting to life?  Or are you beginning to see with the eyes of your heart...to live with great purpose?  What does it look like to lay our burdens at His feet?


3) Gary told us that our actions betray our calling.  What do your actions "betray" about your desire?  What are you compelled to do...to be?

4) Are you prepared to let your light shine? (Luke 8:16, Matt 5:14)  Are you discovering opportunities to see that promise fulfilled? To live into your glory?

We look forward to continuing on this journey together!

With a grateful heart,



The Piercing the Veil Team
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How is the journey treating you?  Amazing, isn't it, how quickly we are drawn back into the smaller story.  Keep heart - we are all of us wrestling with the realities of our assignments and our roles.

Thank you for your encouraging words!  Our team took some time to review the surveys many of you left behind and we've continued to get encouraging emails from you.  The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive - particularly with regard to the work God is doing in every man's life.  Here's a quote from one recent email that reflects what many of your are saying and feeling:

"I had such an intimate encounter on that particular Sunday with the Lord that it feels almost too sacred to even 'unpack.'  I believe that weekend will be a life marker for me as I continue to review and study the notes and its impact."


Session Two of the Calling Retreat focused on Mystery.  Jeff and Gary highlighted the "vein of gold" that runs through each man; a seed in each of us that knows how to bear good fruit.  There is a mysterious yearning that is individual to each of us; a unique glory that God has placed in our hearts.  It was a message of hope.  Hope that, as C.S. Lewis said, "The best is perhaps what we understand the least."  Mystery is a part of life...it is something to accept and journey into.  We cannot contain God's promise through our understanding - we can only pursue the mystery through and with Him.  Mystery is an invitation into intimacy with God...and we have to be willing to journey into the deep water.


Questions we are considering this week:
  • How does this idea sit with you?  Do you dare to believe that what is most glorious about you is yet to be revealed?  What might it look like to stop "playing the notes on the page?" How does it feel?
  • Are you beginning to grasp the difference between disorientation and mystery?  That while we seek to be "Alert & Oriented X Three," the mystery will continue to call us into deeper waters?  That "not knowing" is not the same as "being stupid?"  How is this coming to the surface for you now?
  • Does Proverbs 3:5-7 have a different resonance?  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  Do not be wise in your own eyes..."
As we continue deeper together we invite you to do the same.

With a gracious heart,


The Piercing the Veil Team
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We write this in the midst of our hopes and prayers that you've had a great week back and that you are continuing to remember God's impact on each of us from the weekend.  Thank you again for joining us on the journey into His calling in each of our lives.  It was a sincere honor to share the weekend with you!

Our hope, for all of us, is to "stay in this" for as long as we can.  God has more to show us; He has depth yet to invite us into...but the pull of everyday life is a reality that can distract us and distance us from our heart.

The Piercing the Veil team is going to revisit each of the sessions from the weekend over the next two months.  This week we are simply celebrating all that God did and is doing in our lives and in yours...sharing moments and memories from the weekend together.  Starting next week we'll be going to God with questions about Orientation (session one).  We'll each spend time reading and meditating on the scriptures Gary provided and come together to revisit questions like:
  • Do I believe that God has a significant plan for my life?  That He wants to share that plan with me over time and train me up like a "good Dad?"
  • What story am I living in?  Am I on a cruise liner or a battle ship?
  • What was my hope in attending the Calling Retreat?  How did God "show up" and speak into my heart?

Over the coming weeks we'll share similar questions with you even as we explore them together in a small group setting.  We would love to hear from you as well...what you are learning, what God is revealing to you, how He is training you in the midst of current circumstance.

It is not our hope to burden any of you...only to invite.  We already look forward to our next opportunity to be together.


With a grateful heart,
 
 

The Piercing the Veil Team
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