Carry On | Lent Devotion Week 2
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Getting Started:
What do you think it means to connect with other people? What does that look like for you in school, at work, in your community, at home, or with your friends? When is it easiest to connect with someone? When is it hard?
Verse:
1 Corinthians 12: 25-27
There may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Learn More:
The letter to the community at Corinth is meant to help them get through some really complicated times. The people of that church represent a variety of backgrounds and traditions, and it’s getting harder and harder to live and worship together. Paul’s letter is meant to remind them that they’re one community in Jesus Christ. He encourages them to work together, to understand each other, and to live out their faith in caring relationship. He knows that their connections with each other will hold them in faith and love.
Reflect:
Easter has often used the phrase “better together” when thinking about how we do life and ministry together. How do you see us connecting with each other? How does it make us stronger as people and a congregation?
Easter people talk about “blurring the lines between church and community” in the ways we live and serve. What does that mean to you? Where do you see that happening most? Where could it happen more?
Connection isn’t just about friendships or social relationships, although that’s a big part of it. How do you think we’re called to connect with each other as children of God?
How does the call to connect fit in with the mission of carrying on the work of Jesus Christ?
Respond:
Humans are wired for connection. We need to connect with each other. Find one way this week that you can connect with someone. Maybe you want to call up a friend for a coffee date. Maybe you will write a card to five people who you know could use encouragement. Maybe you could strike up a conversation with someone new after church. Take a minute to think of what you want to do, commit to it, make a plan for how it will happen, and follow through. And best of all: share what you did with someone else and challenge them to do the same!