Plan B Discussion — Chapters 5-6

June 29, 2010 By 3 Comments

First off, I am so sorry for missing last week! I’m not even sure where that weekend went. Which is odd, considering Aaron was on a 4-day fishing trip, so I had a lot of down time!

Anyway. Let’s get to it.

Chapter 5 — Paralyzed — really hit home with me. I really struggle with fear and worry. I repeat Phil 4:6 to myself a lot (do not be anxious about anything), but fear is a tough battle. And it’s never little worries that get me. It’s the big stuff: What if one of us loses our job?  What if Aaron gets in an accident? And the biggest — what if we never have kids?

But as scripture shows us — worry is a wasted emotion.

We don’t have a fear problem. We have a faith problem. (61)

That hit home!

“God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, of self-discipline,” II Timothy 1:7

I underlined a lot (a lot) of Chapter 6 — Whiplash. A couple of my favorite quotes:

When life isn’t turning out the way we had hoped, we almost always default to feeling as if God has abandoned us. … And yet the truth is that God is most powerfully present even when he seems most apparently absent. (69)

We think our suffering is a sign that we’re getting something wrong, not evidence that God is at work to teach us and bring us blessing. (80)

Questions:

  • In what ways have you seen your fears establish the limits of your life?
  • What is a fear you need to surrender to God or one area of your life where you need to seek God’s kingdom first?
  • Why do you think it’s hard to imagine God is with us when we’re in the middle of a Plan B situation?

We’re reading Plan B by Pete Wilson. Want to join us? We’ll be discussing chapters 7-10 (getting caught up!) next Monday, July 5.

In case you missed it: Chapter 1 & 2 discussion and Chapter 3 & 4 discussion.

 
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Plan B — Chapters 3 & 4

June 14, 2010 By 5 Comments

Chapter 3 — The Illusion of Control

Oh, we love to pretend we’re in control, don’t we?

We assume if we work hard enough and pray long enough, eventually we’ll be able to manipulate the circumstances to our benefit. Trouble is, life doesn’t work that way (25).

King David had a long history of royally messing up: seducing Bathsheba, murdering her husband Uriah so that David could marry her, doing nothing when Tamar was raped, doing nothing again when Amnon was vengefully murdered.

But as his son Absalom came after the throne, David’s “doing nothing” was actually surrender. David learned to say: not my will, but your’s Lord.

In this moment David is doing more than giving up his throne. He’s specifically recognizing the fact that God is God and he is not! (31)

David is releasing his illusion of control on the situation, and he is allowing God’s will to be done. And this man was the king. Who has more (earthly) control than an king? Than someone who can command armies and has unlimited assets at his disposal?

Just because my will won’t be done, [David's] saying, doesn’t mean that God’s will won’t be done (31).

Not my will Lord, but your will. Oh that’s a hard place to get to.

But as Pete points out in this chapter, the only thing we do control is how we respond to our actual lack of control.

The only thing you control is how you respond to your disappointments and your unexpected obstacles (34).

How are you responding to the fact that you’re not in control?

Chapter 4 — Your Jordan

What is your Jordan River? Where is God leading you? What stands between the life you have now and what He’s promised? (I promise you hope and a future -  Jer 29:11.) Are you willing to take that first step to see what He’ll do?

I love the story of Joshua leading the Israelites across the flooded Jordan River. I love that they had to trust God and put their feet into the river before He parted the waters. It’s such a key story, a key lesson. You have to take the first step.

[The Israelites] will not see God’s power, they will not experience his faithfulness, until they get their feet wet (44).

This Wednesday, Aaron and I are meeting with a reproductive endocrinologist, which is a huge fancy medical term for a doctor who specializes in infertility. It is NOT a step that I wanted to take (who does), and I fought this next step (our plan b) for awhile. In my plan, I saw us perhaps pursuing treatments, but walking through them with my regular ob/gyn; the one who performed my surgery. I just really didn’t want to leave her.

Last month I went into her office for another test — one with inconclusive results — and afterward she said to me: I think you need to move on to a specialist. I was speechless. Here I thought the decision was mine! But it wasn’t. She was releasing me from her treatment.

Another line that jumped out at me from this chapter was this:

Plan B situations of all kinds can provide fertile ground for hate and bitterness (46).

I’ve written before about my desire—and often struggle—to not allow infertility to make me bitter. As Pete writes in this chapter, bitterness is poison. It destroys you. It destroys your hopes, your life, sometimes your relationship with God. Bitterness is the poison that we drink thinking it will change someone, or hurt someone, or right a wrong, or even, illogically enough, protect us from pain. But bitterness always destroys. Always.

A few questions:

  • In what areas of your life are you most tempted to try to control things? What are some of the ways you do this?
  • How are you learning to “let it be”? (And please tell me that I’m not the only one with the Beatles song stuck in her head after reading that!)
  • What determines the difference between a healthy “let it be” and an unhealthy refusal to take responsibility?
  • Why do you think God often waits for us to take the first step before we see his power released in our lives?

Looking forward to discussing this with you!

We’re reading Plan B by Pete Wilson. Want to join us? We’ll be discussing chapters 5 and 6 next Monday, June 21.

In case you missed it: Chapter 1 & 2 discussion.

 
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Plan B — Chapters 1 & 2

June 8, 2010 By 13 Comments

Okay, first, I am really enjoying it. I had to actually make myself stop reading so that I wouldn’t get too far ahead!

Chapter 1 — Reality

I really liked where he says that “everyone needs healing” and that “everyone has shattered dreams.” And that sometimes we assume, because we’re Christians, that because we dreamed something for ourselves that God dreams it for us too. I, personally, don’t have to look too far to see the truth in that statement.

Chapter 2 — Don’t Run

I, too, love the story of David. He messed up a lot. But he was repentant, and he ultimately, always, ran back to God.

My pastor often says “don’t quit.” Just stick it out, one more day, one more season, one more whatever.  In James 1 the author writes that “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Don’t run. When we run, what does it say to God?

Pete writes that the mistake David makes is that he “assumes he understands God and his ways.” And that when God “doesn’t handle things the way [David] expected, David just gives up” (16).

But that’s the worst way to handle things—don’t give up. “Because no matter how things seem, God is still with you” (22).

Pete closes out the chapter with this—what I want to remember every day:

Despite what your current circumstances are telling you, God is for you. He is working things out for your good (24).

Are you enjoying the book? What did you think of the first two chapters? Are you running?

(We’re reading Plan B by Pete Wilson. Want to join us? We’ll be discussing chapters 3 and 4 next Monday, June 14.)

 
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Book Club — Selection & Schedule

May 26, 2010 By 4 Comments

So what will it be?

Blog Book Club

I’d posted on Facebook that it was going to be Stuff Christians Like, but … I changed my mind. I started reading it, and while I am loving it, it isn’t a book that lends itself to study/discussion. (I mean, it does, as his blog proves every day, but not in the shape that I think this will take.)

So Plan B it is! There is a study guide included, and since we’re in the middle of a sort of plan B ourselves (as I scheduled a consult appointment with an RE just today), I thought it an appropriate choice.

There are 14 chapters, so I thought we would tackle two at a time, every Monday, starting on June 7. Are you in? I hope so!

 
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The Reading Tree

May 7, 2010 By 4 Comments

At the elementary school I attended, there was a wooden reading apple tree in the library. You climbed up a ladder to a platform where there bean bags and pillows; it was a special treat. It was a reward to go up in the reading tree; one my classmates and I all coveted. In the older grades (3rd-5th), you could get a short pass to leave your class to go read in the library if you were caught up on your work. My friends and I were always aiming for time in the reading tree.

I’ve been a lifelong reader, and I am always reading at least a book or two. But lately it seems like I’ve been to busy to really dive into anything, and the stack on my bedside  table continues to grow. And as much I love reading, I love talking about books just as much. In my single days, I was part of an book club who read most of the bestsellers lists from the early 2000s. Sure we ate cheese and drank wine, but we talked books too. I still miss it.

So here are three books I’m looking forward to reading, and I would love to read one of them alongside all of you.

Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel (pastor of Life Church in OKC).

Plan B by Pete Wilson (pastor of Cross Point in Nashville).

Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff (blogger who writes stuffchristianslike.net).

Any interest? What’s your vote? You can either leave a comment here or come discuss it on the Facebook page!

 
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