Safety And Settling In

SPEAKER_06 1:22

And for the purpose of the podcast, if you might want to pause this now if you're driving in your car. So we're gonna focus on walking with Christ on the road today. We had a member that was inspired by this, and we'll get more insight on this later. So this contemplation is really focused on the walk on the emerald road. So before we get started, want you to put your feet flat on the ground, wiggle your toes, feel your toes. And just feel gravity pulling all the tension that's away from your body right now. It's pulling it all downward. And just be ready to receive. I want you to take a slow deep breath. Let your body settle. Allow yourself to arrive. Not just physically but inwardly. Gently become aware of God's presence with us.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

Not distant but near closer than your breath.

SPEAKER_06 3:06

Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. Luke twenty four fifteen. You're not alone on the road, you're walking. Now imagine yourself on the Emma on the road to Emmaus.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

Notice what you are carrying today. Now Jesus draws near and begins walking with you. Not rushing. Not correcting. Just present. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 4:56

What are you discussing? As you walk along. Luke twenty four, seventeen. Let that question rest.

Breaking Bread And Opened Eyes

SPEAKER_04 5:10

What are you discussing? What's on your heart today? What conversation have you been having within yourself? There's no need to filter the response. Speak honestly. Or simply notice. Jesus is listening fully, gently, without interruption. We're seated at the table with him.

SPEAKER_06 6:55

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it out to them. Luke twenty four and thirty. Notice Jesus' movements.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

Unhurried, attentional and present. As he opens the bread, as he breaks the bread, something begins to open within you. Their eyes were opened. Luke twenty four thirty one. Stay here for a moment. What's being revealed to you? Not through striving, but through presence through being. Luke twenty four, thirty-two. Notice any warmth. Clarity.

SPEAKER_06 9:02

Peace. Quiet knowing.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

You have walked with Jesus.

SPEAKER_06 9:29

You have sat with Jesus. You have received from Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

What do you notice now? Perhaps nothing dramatic.

SPEAKER_06 9:55

Just a subtle shift. Acquired awareness that he's been walking with you all alone.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

And as we move through our meeting, carry this question with you.

Sharing The Experience Together

SPEAKER_06 10:24

Where might Christ be walking with you? What have I not recognized? And when you're ready, return back. Turn your cameras on.

SPEAKER_10 10:40

Thank you so much, Donald, for that beautiful contemplation. And I just want to give a moment if anyone has something that they're moved to say by this contemplation. We'd love to hear it. Would anyone like to share?

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Luz. Yes, thank you. Especially since this is my first, I thought thank you for that. That was amazing. It touched my heart deeply. It was the probably one of the few times that I feel the love of Jesus. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_10 11:22

Beautiful. Anyone else?

SPEAKER_09 11:27

What struck me was that Jesus was never hurried. You know, he wasn't rushing along the road with um, he wasn't, you know, at the start of the meal, he broke bread, he stopped. You know, he didn't rush in to pick up his knife and fork and eat really quickly, you know. And I just thought we that's so countercultural to where we are now. And that was just a beautiful kind of revelation for me just now, thank you. You know, if we're following Jesus, we will he wants us to be unhurried. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_10 12:10

So today's meeting was inspired by Komey, who's gonna speak next. Yes, you Komey shared in our live love group about how this passage impacted her, and we were so deeply moved that I went back to the team and I'm like, we've got to talk about Radio Mase, it's perfect. So Kamei, I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

Oh my god, I didn't know I didn't know that, but I just want to share that. Well, it was a visualization for me right now as as Mr. Donald was sharing. So my saboteur is an hyperachiever, and I have this things I want to achieve. I have a podcast that I want to get going, and so many things I want to do, and I've been so overwhelmed and intense. I want to get to the end of the road, you know, like the outcome is so intense, but so as I visualize it, Jesus was like, you gotta enjoy this journey, it's not the outcome is where we're going, and Jesus was calm, and I felt the calmness coming in with me, and as he talks about sitting down and looking the bread and the eyes open, I feel like something cracked open in me that this journey is meant to be enjoyed and not leave at the outcome, the place of the outcome, but now it's something about how we talk about the siege advice for the for the uh upper achievement. I think I was just reminded again right now as we're doing this. Thank you.

Being Over Doing From Love

SPEAKER_10 13:54

I had a similar experience with this visualization, in that I saw the road on the hillside and I chuckled because my hyperachiever would want to climb and go up and out out of wanting to like make it shorter, like let's cut to the chase. And when when we got to the part of um being at the table, just the piece, and I'm like, oh, all those burdens I was imagining being on the road, don't have to be, I don't have to cut through the road and exhaust myself, and I can sit at the table. There's an invitation to to be quiet at the table and to bring my work and to bring, and I just see a lovely candlelit old biblical scene of Jesus is like, let's work on it together, and you're like, really? Really? In in this soft way. So that's what that did. And to bridge to our topic, which you're all doing such a great job discussing, is being is exploring being overdoing. What does it mean? Last month we talked about how do we invite God into our accept and convert, and now we're using this story of the road to amaze to explore being and doing? And how do we do being and doing? Because we don't stop doing, right? We still do, but how do we explore being and doing from a place of being loved? And what more might this Emmaus story reveal to us about transformation?

SPEAKER_06 15:51

I'm gonna say this really quick. It's if you notice on the road before Jesus approaches them, restless is present. Then Jesus shows up. And they're trying to explain to Jesus what had happened in the same way that when we operate in restlessness, we're trying to explain what Jesus already knew and knows. So how might we this restlessness, hyperachiever, stickler, controller? What might Jesus be saying to us now in our being and doing regarding this journey from the road to the table?

SPEAKER_10 16:44

Robert.

SPEAKER_08 16:46

This was such a powerful visualization for me. I am leading a senior pastoral search team for a church. Currently, our senior pastor is retiring at the end of May. That's a situation that presents you with a whole lot of opportunities to get overwhelmed and misunderstood and rushed and hurried. And the previous I ran a search team for our associate pastor about three or four years ago, and we took nine months to find our associate pastor, and the Lord just dropped him in our lab after nine months, after we were very hurried and very ambitious and very aggressively trying to find somebody. Frustration. And we're not gonna find the man that the Lord has picked for us to find by running around like a chicken with our head cut off. It's just I would I would really like to do this visualization with the search team when we meet again. That that was just really powerful, Donald. Uh it spoke to me and will speak to me again and again. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 18:44

I'm sensing hurrying, striving, pursuing. And what might God be inviting us into? And I love what Robert just said. He said it he dropped him in our laps.

SPEAKER_08 19:02

He was right here in our community. We live in a small community in Tennessee, and we didn't have to move anybody in. He was already here, and he's turned out to be exactly what we needed. And it's just such a blessing to shut up and listen, you know.

SPEAKER_10 19:25

And what I hear in that too is trust, which we talked about with accept and convert. If I'm gonna accept, who am I trusting so I can lay it down?

Trust And Rest In Real Life

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Anyone else? I was just thinking that you know, walking with the Lord, even when we don't think that we see him next to us, he's always with us. Even when we're sitting at the table and we think we're by ourselves, we never are. And I think that even walking and knowing that he orders our steps, and even if we are making moves and taking actions, God can use all those things for his plan and purpose in that. So we don't have to we don't have to beat ourselves up about moving forward and doing things. That's that's I think that's important too on both sides of the coin. Yes, we should pause. I love the fact that my husband and I do a devotional every morning together, and it just helps you to to refocus, you know, everybody does it differently, I'm sure, but you know, we can spend many, much time in scripture and many things, and then take a pause. And you know, people take a pause for a season. I've seen it happen with me occasionally, and I'm like, wait, no, I need to get just get back focused on that, and and then trust that everything else is gonna come together. And that's why I say God is always with us, especially when we receive Him. And there's even moments I think, at least in my range of faith, once you accept the Lord, you never lose Him. And it doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing, what happens, He's always with you, He's never gonna leave you. And I just have that confidence because if it's something that we do, then it wouldn't be the salvation that we want so or need. So I just love the fact that even when I'm not paying attention, God next to me, He's always with me, and I'm so grateful for that. And I love you know, listening to that reflection to remember that all the time.

SPEAKER_05 21:37

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Okay, so I love the the being and the doing, and what was coming to my mind is that in the context of the rooted emails, we are on the journey to the great banquet, and I already have a seat at the table. We already have a seat at the table, which is the banquet of the lamb, you know. So, and and Jesus' sacrifice, his shedding of his blood has exposed, you know, my beautiful sage essence. It's just like the metaphor of the golden Buddha and all the dirt that covered him. So Jesus is sacrificed as like taking all the dirt away. So I'm already I'm being how do I say I already am my golden, beautiful essence, but the doing is intentional choices I have to make every day to choose the sage, and I think God ordered it that way because it says there's a way he said it in Second Corinthians where it says that the unfolding that from glory to glory will be renewed, like from glory to glory. I can't remember how he said it again. So is that daily renewal? So for me, it's choosing sage. Um, I already am, but the doing is choosing sage, intercepting my sabotage and choosing sage and being intentional about it. So, and as I was thinking about where I am right now, why I'm feeling overwhelmed. So I wanted to get my podcast out this week, but fear stepped in again. Fear of what I'm what am I gonna say? How am I gonna say it? Will I get the right audience? So I think what was coming to me as we're talking about doing is trusting that the podcast, the titles, and the topics will come. I'll be giving the words instead of me worrying and you know, sitting in fear, I'll give in the words I'll say, and it will land in the ears of the right women who the words are meant for. Because I'm sitting here, I'm like, oh, will they like it? You know, all those things that are causing me to say in my saboteur. So the doing is me. I already am. So the doing is me choosing faith and choosing the sage mindset rather than letting my sabotoir take the driver's seat. Am I making sense? So this is what I'm getting just here. And yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:25

So before we go to Thambella, I want I want to connect because she talked about being. And remember, we we started out this year with the focus of living loved. And that's living in our identity. And Luke 3.22 says, You're my beloved and you I am well pleased. And isn't it fitting at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, God pronounces identity on him and says, You're my beloved. And in the same way, he speaks to us. So before any miracles, before any healing, before any feeding of the 5,000, before anything, God said you're beloved, and that's our being. So living from that place and understanding that place of being loved by God and bringing that into doing is where shifts happen.

SPEAKER_07 25:27

Yeah, I think this this speaks uh a lot to to me. Thank you so much. And and thanks, for reminding us this about this idea of being the beloved, because I think I I shared in our small group, I think, tweaks ago, how God has really slowed me down this year. I'm a I'm a doer. And from late last year up until even now, found myself being slowed down by health to a point that I had to suspend my coaching work. And and I found it such a difficult thing to operate from that place of being the beloved, like of really believing that I am the beloved of the Lord. And in our devotions today, we were reading about I'm from Matthew 11, 29 to 30. Now saying it's very difficult for me to talk about what rest is. And there was a question of what does rest look like for you. And I think being in around the table with Jesus is about that rest. And yet I've I've found it such a difficult thing to really find my peace and rest in the Lord and know that even what I'm going through, like He's got me. So I I just want to say that and just to thank you for reminding us. Just for reminding me of the fact that I'm the beloved and that I can actually sit around the table with Jesus and rest in him. Just a reminder as well that he's with me in the journey, you know, that discussion about what are we talking about? Yeah, Sulu speaks to me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 27:41

Dao. Thank you, Zambella. Hi.

SPEAKER_11 27:45

So I was thinking the in the line of how I believe, right? Jesus is the rest. He he is he is the Sabbath rest. And we were doing, we were going through this reflection, and it I just kept thinking, you know, come to me, those who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Currently, my life is about action. There's a lot of moving, moving pieces, but the beauty is that in the midst of that, I can still have rest. I don't know if that makes any sense, but you know what I'm saying? So I just wanted to share that.

SPEAKER_06 28:30

So so what is it about the slowing down and recognizing that allows that remembrance of who we are to pop up? And on the road to Emmaus, when they finally got the revelation, what did they say? Didn't something burn within us, right? So what is it about taking that time to slow down and embracing the present moment that allows us to live in that rest in the midst of the storm in the peace in the midst of all the doing? What is it about it? And I have another question. Do we practice slowing down? That's like the PQ reps, right? Those are those are specific moments of slowing down enough to recognize. But what what is it about it?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

For me, right now I'm going through a process, I'm looking at a different model to work with my clients to start with a foundation of identity. And so I have to go through it myself first to make sure that it actually works. And when I sit down and think about what is my identity, if I strip away every single thing that could be taken away from me, what's left? So it's everything, it's everything from I'm a wife, I'm a mom, I'm a coach. If you take away everything that has anything to do with a role or doing what's left, and that's really my identity. And over and over again, this this contemplation really solidifies it for me that when it comes all the way down to the very bottom of who I am, I'm beloved. Yes, and that's what really matters, and nobody can take that away. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

I also think there's a gift and the opposites attract. And, you know, if you're a doer, which I am, and my husband is not that he doesn't do things, but he's more the opposite of what I am. But you know, God sometimes puts people, places, and circumstances in front of us. And we think that it's something negative, but it's actually a gift. So I can say, oh, you know, I want to do this, but now because I, you know, I have somebody in my life that I must, you know, honor and and and listen to, and and you know, I s I wait until he's ready to say that too, until we're in the same space, or, you know, we work out in different ways. But you can do that with many people, with your kids who become adults, you know, with your whomever you work with. You know, these are the things you need to understand that, you know, it's when our saboteurs shift from our strengths and opportun, you know, strengths and mindsets and the things that we can do, and we shift to this other side of pushing it so hard. That's when our saboteurs kind of jump in. And that's why we all have a little bit different range of what they are. But I really feel like, you know, the Lord He does order our steps, he brings the people in front of us for a reason, and sometimes we look at it as a negative, but it may be a positive if we look at it in the right way.

SPEAKER_06 32:17

Call me.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Yeah, I just want to share what I what I've been learning. So I started doing the PQ again with a few doctors who started from the beginning again, like doing the six weeks uh course, and it it became more clear to me, understanding the scientific way the brain works. So our saboteurs have formed very deep grooves in the brain already. So that's where our negative tendency goes to that place quickly. That's the first way we respond to abuse and overuse of our natural sage strength, our natural essence that we have. So in the past, before tech and all this came in, you know, people worked in the field, the the bell rings, and everybody stops and prays this berries. You know, people are able to pause and just take the time. They they pause and do stuff, right? They pray, they do, I don't know if they call PQ, but they do stuff. There was quiet, and the desert fathers did stuff, right? So in our day, in our time, productivity is like top of the range. And so I see our doctors, we are all we keep going, our brains and autopilot keep going. And so PQ is a way for me to intentionally stop and redirect my brain. And I I was looking at the Bible, I was like, you know, you see places that say early in the morning, Jesus went somewhere quiet to pray. He was he was practicing PQ because I recognize for myself that in the mornings I am more likely to get inspired, I'm more likely to, that's when I'm even able to read my Bible and understand, or when I'm in the shower, because the water does something because it's physical sensations, right? So I think I'm going all over the place. My brain is going over. The point I'm trying to make is this when when I'm able to connect to my sage, I'm peace, I'm quiet, I'm open. And so the spirit is able to download and give me what I need, inspiration I need. And God has given me His Holy Spirit to help me to be able to stop. I have to be willing. I think it's my will to I need to be willing to stop at 11 o'clock and do my PQ. And stop myself at two o'clock and do my PQ. And so now I'm recognizing as I'm taking my these doctors along on the journey that I have to be intentional. Am I making sense? But uh so so yeah, so yeah, to rest from my striving, God has already given me the spirit, the power to do it, but my will has to come into place as well. And PQ is a tool. I cannot go to the desert and go get some solitude, but I can get solitude by doing it right here and now. And this is a tool to get a piece of fire. This is a tool to open myself to connect to the spirit. That's how I interpret it to myself. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 35:29

So remember, we've been we've been on a journey here. And if you're new here, please go back and listen to the to the episodes because we've recognized that PQ is a tool. And we understand that when we invite God into it, that it's a sacred tool. And we're talking about identity, we're talking about love, but but look what Romans 12 and 1 says first, because we're talking about body now. Doing has everything to do with our body. Romans 12 and 1 says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. So when we're talking about taking those moments of that time to slow down and to pause, we're honoring the Father. And what PQ has done for us, it just gave us a mirror. It gave us the mirror to see, and it also provides us a door to step into what God is doing. So I want you to really understand. And when Steph said that when you strip everything away, I am beloved. I want you to just just settle that. I've said this before. Most people don't realize in the New Testament 141 times the Holy Spirit chose the word beloved to express identity 141 times in the New Testament. He's getting us to understand that we're not an afterthought from the very foundations of the world, God said you're beloved. So I want to read a quote here. And I'm this is flowing, guys. And it's by Dr. Hassan Moon, and and the quote is focused on already. And it says, focus on the efforts a person has made in the desired direction rather than on next steps. So let me read it again. Focus on the efforts a person has made, or let me say it this way focus on the efforts you have made in the desired direction rather than on next steps. Let's go back to the road. See, if you think about next step, you miss who's walking with you. Everything that's been said today is about being present. See, we sense it, but it's getting to that place of knowing that in all things Christ is with us and we're loved in spite of and in everything. Anyone else as we get oh, go ahead, Luz.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

I I I keep and and that was beautiful. I want to keep repeating that to myself. I keep thinking about the road you're right, what we don't fulfill in the space, in the time that we're walking, we will miss. And Jesus is the essence himself of non-hurried. He is the peace, he is the one that we look to and stop to and really focus on. And if we focus on him, even at the table, he was unhurried, knowing the pain he was going to endure. He was unhurried because he focused on his father, he focused on the will because he focused on the divine just obedience to his father. And so I stop and I keep hearing all of us talk about this. And for me, it's Luce, when are you gonna stop being the doer and not just sitting in his love? Which is why I felt the beginning presence of his love for me. And right when you first started, the contemplation was about love, being beloved. But for me, it's that Jesus is the prime example of everything and anything that we could point to the Father. And he is like in this world, we we will have trouble, right? We he says it very clearly, and he is the peace, he is the one that unsettles us down and really brings us to the only way that we can have peace in this world, and so I I feel when you talk about PQ being a tool, I say Jesus is the reason we have sage, he is the ultimate being of that, and that's what drew me to this PQ for Christianity, because my saboteurs have been telling me I'm not good enough, I am not, you know, I am not qualified, I am not the person that could coach people in a Christian faith-based using the PQ. So again, I I think I'm gonna start rambling, but at the at the core of what I hear is that, you know, for us to stop and really sit at the table, and I kind of had to force myself and say, don't think of the Last Supper, because the Last Supper always gives you the line of man with Jesus at the center. I think of it as a round table where he was with us. He was, you know, he had washed the feet, he had used the servant to be a servant. And so for me, it was really bringing him to the focal point of everything we do. Thank you.

One Word Takeaways And Closing

SPEAKER_06 42:11

Well spoken, thank you. We have about six minutes left here. What are you sensing? What are you taking away with you from this meeting? Because you're not here by coincidence, you're here because you needed to be here. What are you taking away? Pick one word to describe it. You could put it in the chat or you can just say it out.

SPEAKER_08 42:48

Reignition.

SPEAKER_06 42:50

Reignition.

SPEAKER_08 42:53

On recognition.

SPEAKER_10 42:55

Jackie Meek says on chat, Jesus wants to take the bags I've been carrying on my own.

SPEAKER_06 43:04

Matthew 11, 28, huh? That was beautiful.

SPEAKER_10 43:10

Slow down. Presence, not accomplishment. Revive and renewed. Sense of peace. Breathe. Love to be loved on this road. Peace that surpasses understanding. Beloved.

SPEAKER_04 43:37

Purposeful.

SPEAKER_10 43:43

Warmth.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Peace and presence. And it does feel like that peace and that presence that I'm sensing is something then that we can turn out turn around and take with us. And it just flows out of us and it goes to everyone around us.

SPEAKER_06 44:03

And it's what a gift. Anyone else? I have a before we get ready to close out, anyone anything else you want to share? And thank you for making the time today. We're here to support you in any way we can. All right. So as we get ready to wind this up, I'm going to leave you with this question. How might God be inviting you to recognize his presence and to allow our hearts to be awakened? Take that with you. How might God be inviting us to recognize his presence and allow our hearts to be awakened? And I will end it with this. Philippians 2 13, we end every meeting with this, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good pleasure. So until next time, be blessed. And have a happy Easter, resurrection day, and just take time to be present with whatever you're doing. You are the beloved and are beloved. Until next time.