This is directly from Seth’s blog:  As a leader, sometimes I’m called upon to inflict pain. I have to make decisions that hurt people in order to achieve some larger purpose. The danger in doing so is that I can keep that pain at arm’s length. I can delegate it to someone else. Or I can simply fail to empathize. Yet, that’s what good leaders do. It’s hard for anyone, whether they are just leading themselves or a thousand people, to embrace pain, even when that may be what God is asking of them. One of the hardest things about my leadership position at...

We are finishing a season of winter. Outside, everything outside turned dull and brown. The wind is whipping and there has been  frost on the windows. Coats and sweaters have been the wardrobe.   Winter is a time when all the evidence points towards death. In winter, the parts of life that were beautiful and growing fell to the ground. Cold air blows away everything green and vibrant. And sometimes our inner emotional life can mirror the weather. It can be a season where pain is our constant companion. We come to expect it. During winter, you can feel like the sun will never warm the earth...

Our journey in this course has not been easy to this point. But some of you are starting to sense hope. Maybe you’ve felt a measure of the comfort you’ve been looking for. I’ve watched all of you pressing into your pain, even though you may have wondered “is this going to be worth it?” You’ve chosen to take a clear-eyed look at times of intense pain in your life. Some of you had to numb it or even wall yourself off from it just to cope. But then, leaving it buried and festering can be like when the doctor discovers an infection in the body – he has...

This blog post is from Seth’s during my course.  He has some great wisdom that I feel is way more insightful than any thing I could bring you.  So here is today’s post:   God heals our pain and then expects us to use it to heal others. In the last post, we looked at one way this works – when we are able to mourn with those who mourn. Today we look at the rest of what Jesus says he (and by implication his followers) are called to. Here are other ministries Jesus was given and we’re given as well from Luke 4:18-19: The Lord has anointed me…The...

This week we turn the page from a focus on our own personal pain to how God wants to use it redemptively to build his Kingdom. As he was beginning his ministry (Luke 4:18-19), Jesus defined what his ministry (and, as his disciples, ours too) would look like citing Isaiah 61:1-3. Here is what it says and my interpretation of what he means in saying these words. Today, we focus on the ministry of comfort. The Spirit of God is on me because the Lord has anointed me… The Holy Spirit has come in power. I am equipped for specific ministry. …To bind up the brokenhearted, A...

  In our last session, we wrestled with the question of “Why pain?” Why do the people I love struggle so? Where is God in the midst of the pain?   Today let’s look at some of the answers that the Bible and Christian thinkers give in answer to that question.   As I’ve shared with you guys, at times in my life, I’ve been in such pain it felt overwhelming. There were just no answers. Each new day felt as miserable as the one before it. And you have each shared that you have felt the same way. We are not unique – if we’ve felt isolated...