Sunday Recap @ da Chapel
Reverend Joshua Goodin
Job 2:11-13 (NRSV)
“Who’s in Your Circle?” pt.3
*When you look at the idea of who’s in your circle, it’s not just about who, it’s also about what. Not just about who they are, but it’s also about what they do, what purpose they serve, and what role they play. They must have an understanding of what role, at what time, they must show up in a certain type of way. You need the right kind of people that know how to handle when you are suffering or grieving.
*You mourn and grieve when transitions take place. Sometimes God volunteers you for seasons of suffering. It’s one thing when you sign up for something and it’s another thing when you get signed up for it. When God gives permission for you to be used, he already knows what you can handle.
*You are not where you are unless God has given you permission. That’s why some opportunities that you went for did not come to fruition because God did not give you permission. Isn’t it amazing how a position can be open, and you know that you can get it, but God doesn’t let you get it? Have you ever felt like God took the restrictions off and made you an open target for the enemy, to cause havoc in your life, and the only thing that hasn’t happened to you is that you did not die? You lost things, took hits, wrestled with sickness, mental, emotional, and financial struggles, and you sometimes ask God is there anything else? The reason you ask is that you feel like you’ve been through it all.
*Maintain your integrity no matter what someone else says. Does your spouse/partner/companion push you to be integral as it pertains to the things of God and life? Or are they always pushing you to a place that questions your integrity and puts your integrity in jeopardy? Ask yourself should you only receive the good from God and not the bad? You only want the blessings, but never want the suffering, always the triumph but never the tribulation. You can’t make it in your relationship with God always on the winning side, sometimes you have to take some losses. The greatest lessons are not in wins, they're in losses.
*How long does it take the people in your circle to show up when they hear that you are experiencing suffering? One of the most frustrating things is when the people you expect to show up first show up last. Start putting out the same energy that you’re getting. Sometimes in order to get people to move, you have to change the standard. One of the things that shift relationships is adversity, struggle, and suffering. You really get to know who you can depend on when you go through some adversity. When you discover that the people you thought you could count on don’t show up for you in adversity when you find yourself in another period or season of suffering, why do you still have an expectation that they’re going to come through? How many times does a person have, how many times can you be let down? Do the people in your circle show up when you’re experiencing lack? Sometimes in your suffering, it can change how you appear. You aren’t how you normally are, and sometimes people don’t know how to respond to you when they see you in a different form. How you respond when you show up matters. If someone is in your circle and they see that you are experiencing suffering or trials, the first thing they should learn how to do is come in and operate in the ministry of presence, don’t say anything, because coming and sitting is all you need. Sometimes in your suffering, you’re trying to figure out your next move, and you don’t need people coming in trying to make conversation. People are afraid of silence, but you can’t say anything wrong or offend if you’re silent. Do you have people in your circle that will sit with you for one day and one night?
*God allows suffering because he wants to refine you. Do the people in your circle have enough patience to sit around with you through your chapters or are they on a set time limit? Sometimes it’s not that they are trying to rush you, but sometimes it’s difficult visiting the same person who keeps responding to the same situations the same way and not getting different results.
