Cultivating Joy:  Week three

The larger picture…

• Leader 101:  Cultivating habits of highly effective spiritual leaders.  This is the primary way LK10 is equipping and connecting leaders of small groups (house churches, etc.).  We encourage you to apply to be part of this Course (the best learning takes place in community!) but even if you don’t, we invite you to join in with the instruction below.
• Lesson One in Leader 101:  Cultivating Joy.  This is the habit we are focusing on this month (June 2015).  The simple fact is that leaders face many challenges.  The good news is that “the joy of the Lord is our strength”.  So, wise leaders intentionally cultivate the habit of joy.
• Week Three:  Joy in the midst of trials.  This week, we are focusing on the challenge of joy in the midst of trials.  I want to share with you two key Greek words that could change your life and then a short video.  As always, our process is to “Listen until the Coach (Holy Spirit) stops you.  Then, dialogue/journal with Him about that idea or concept.  Repeat. Think of the Spirit as your personal Coach!  Then, share what He is teaching you with your CO2 partner, Leader Team, etc.

First Greek Word:  hegeomai 

Consider (hegeomai) it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  James 1:2-5

• This is an important passage for leaders!  The best leaders are those who are intentional about becoming “mature and complete”.  (ie, intentional about growing up spiritually and emotionally)  In fact,  a good definition of an elder (presbuteros) is “a spiritual grownup”.
• This kind of maturity is the result of perseverance.  Steadfast endurance over time.
• But, the question is… How do we persevere in the face of trials and difficulties?  The key to this is found in the word “consider”  (hegeomai in the Greek).
• hegeomai is a compound Greek word.  ago = to lead the way, bring along, guide.  oiomai = to imagine, think, suppose.  So, the meaning in this context is “to lead the mind, to guide the imagination.”  (Notes.)  More specifically, to lead or guide your own mind/brain.
• This implies that you are not your brain.  Or, more accurately, your brain is not all of who you are.  Passages that demonstrate this dichotomy between us (our spirit? soul?) and our mind/brain:  Eph. 5:29  (key questions:  Who is being nurtured?  Who is doing the nurturing?), Ps. 103:1-5  (key questions:  Who is speaking?  Who is he speaking to?).  Also, see also You Are not Your Brain, Schwartz)  This is a powerful and important concept!  (Note:  some people have divided our being into sharply defined categories… body, soul, spirit, etc.  However, my sense is that, the Hebraic understanding is less defined.)
• Our brains will respond in various ways to the trials we encounter.  They often respond with something like “This is bad.  I don’t like this.  Get me out of here!”  These responses are natural.  Some of our check-ins will be about how our brains are responding to difficult situations.  (sad, angry, scared, etc.)
• While this sort of check-in is an important place to start, it’s not necessarily where we want to end up.  We need to take responsibility to “lead or guide” our brains (thinking and imagination) by giving them new information.  Here’s the principle:  The emotions I feel about any situation are determined by the meaning I attach to that situation.  Our emotions help us see the meaning that is initially being attached to the trial.  The process of changing the meaning of that trial could be called “reframing”.  This process over time is how we retrain our brains.  (Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Rom. 12:2)
• How do we reframe?  The key is found in verse 5.  “If anyone lacks wisdom…”  Wisdom is the ability to see a situation from God’s perspective.  So, the key question always is, “Lord, how do you see this situation?”  The more we listen to the Lord and see through His eyes (wisdom), the more we can guide or lead our thinking (hegeomai – consider).  This moves us towards “pure joy”.
• We develop perseverance as we repeatedly reframe the trials we encounter in life.  As we reframe them, our joy grows. And, as we practice this process over time, we become mature (spiritually grown up with deepening joy).  And, this enables us to be increasingly effective spiritual leaders.
• Questions… What trials are you currently facing?  Has God shown you His perspective (meaning) for them?  Are you experiencing a growth in “pure joy”?  (Note:  often listening in community is part of the process for seeing trials through God’s eyes.)  What trials have you faced in the past that God has used to grow you up?

Second Greek Word:  eudokeo

This story is a great example in Paul’s life of the process described above in James 1.  To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But, he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight (eudokeo) in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Cor. 12: 7-10.

• This is a specific example of how God was maturing Paul through a difficult trial.
• We don’t know the exact nature of Paul’s thorn (trial) but we know how his brain responded… “This is torment!  Lord, please take it away!”
• As Paul took this trial to the Lord, the Lord reframed the thorn.  That is, He didn’t remove the thorn but He attached a different meaning to it.  (My paraphrase…“Hey Paul,  you’ve experienced my supernatural power before.  Did you know that you can get more of that power through the weakness that your thorn causes?”  
• Because Paul so highly valued God’s power, once he understood the concept, his emotions immediately changed.  God changed the meaning of the thorn (reframed) and it was like a light bulb turned on in Paul’s head.  He didn’t have to try hard to be joyful, he was spontaneously joyful because he understood that more of God’s power was going to “rest on him”. (Or, “dwell with him”.)  He said he can now “take delight” in the very thing that previously tormented him.
• eudokeo.  Compound Greek word.  eu = good, pleasure, happy.  dokeo – to think, imagine.  “To think it good, to find joy in”.  Because God had reframed the thorn (attached a new meaning to it), Paul could readily find joy (“consider it all joy”) in the thorn (ie, the trial).
• Questions… What thorns are there in your life that are tormenting you?  Have you been able to see them through God’s eyes yet?  Have you gotten to the place of delight (eudokeo)?  (Note:  sometimes this process happens quickly and sometimes it happens over time.)  What “thorn stories” do you have in your past?  Meditating on these stories and sharing them in community are key to building faith in how the Lord works through trials to grow us up.

A transformational video

This 12 minute video explains the concept of reframing from the perspective of brain science.  Very important insights (plus it’s hilarious)!  Look for the connects with the two Greek words above.