Baggage

Hey friends,

Last night at Veritas, we started a series that I think is going to be pretty unique when it's all said and done. The theory behind it all is that we spend far too much time discussing things AROUND the idea of Jesus, and even (I am pretty guilty of this anyway) substituting information ABOUT Christ rather than a genuine relationship with Christ. So, as a teacher this is hard, but I'm trying to work through this series without any actual "teaching." My goal at the end would be that our students spent some time with the person of Christ.

Last night we talked about Matthew 11:25-30, and about the kinds of burdens we're each carrying. We watched a pretty awesome Skit Guys video, and then started asking questions. The truth is, at least in our neighborhood, I see our students so tense and so stressed out and so worried, and I wonder how much of that they actually NEED to carry around with them.

Questions are a marvelous way to teach. I've gotten so many interesting comments about the Bin Laden post from a couple of days ago, and all it contained were the questions in my mind. Take a look through the gospel stories, and you'll find that Jesus was way more about the question than he was about the answers.

And for our students last night, it felt like questions led to more questions. And those questions led us to another place. And by the end of the night, we were nowhere near where I had planned to take us. But then again, when you have a series which strives to keep Jesus as it's focus, how far could you possibly stray? And so, a few questions for us to think about this morning:

What kind of baggage are you carrying?

Why?

Why is it so hard to let Jesus carry our baggage for us?

Do we trust him?

Really?

Really really?

What's the first tangible step towards letting go some of what we're holding on to?

What role does the Church play in allowing us to let our baggage go

Where do we go from here?