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Christlife Posture: Trusting God's Wisdom

Topic: Evaluating How I Consume

 

Suggested Approach: Choose 1 thing from each of the three boxes

OR Choose 1 from Media or Reflection + 1 from Scripture 

Media Excursions (Watch/read/listen and be ready to discuss Q's)

Art

  • Knock, Knock (J. Janknegt) What does this painting say to you about how or what we consume?

  • Image/Devotional The Lent Project March 9, 2017 (“Gray Day”-Richards, Devotional thoughts-Mike Ahn).  Read the devotional and consider the 4 questions for reflection he poses at the end.

Infographic

  • Millennials Infographic (Goldman Sachs) What do you learn from this research about how the young adult population consumes? What do you relate to? What discourages or encourages you? 

Video Clip

  • Void (Culmination Films) Which of the strategies for filling the void could you relate to? Can you think of some which were not in this video?  What was the message at the end--have you experienced the contrast it seemed to suggest is possible? What keeps people continuing to consume things that don’t ultimately satisfy (not addressed in this video)?

Song

  • Christ in Me (Jeremy Camp) What "things" make you happy? How does a sense of "deserving" more affect the way you consume? What lyrics or images in the song stand out to you in regard to how you consume?

Blog

Article ​

Video Teaching

  • How to Practice Effectively (Ted-Ed) What repeated actions in your life are you strengthening neurologically?  What ideas does this short video give you for choosing which habits you want to be better at? Be creative.

Reflection Options  

Journal  (Reflect on one or more of these questions)

  • Keep a time log noting the various things you spend your time, energy and money on.  At the end of a specified period of time (a week might be a good gauge), what are the “winners”? Journal about what you see and feel in regard to your consuming patterns or habits.

  • Reflect on something you were intentional in consuming.  What are the desires that taps into? How might you allow God to shape or energize those desires?

  • If you were to do a study of Jesus or Paul’s patterns of consuming, what do you think you would find?

Quote Interaction (Interact by agreeing, disagreeing or otherwise engaging with the quote/quotes)

  • The best things in life aren't things.  Art Buchwald

  • A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand.  Dorothy Sayers

  • “Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours”  Swedish Proverb

Reading & Reflection from the book, Shaping The Journey of Emerging Adults: 

  • Read “From Cruise Ships to Beachhead Landing Ships” (pp. 54-55).  Have you expected your church or fellowship to be more like a cruise ship than a beachhead landing ship? How does your attitude toward what you consume leak into your church experience?

  • Read “Time Constraints and Technology” (pp. 193-194). How has societal pressure to engage as a consumer or prosumer affected what you spend your time and energy on?

Explore Scripture

Meditate on one or more of the following passages. Always look them up in context.  Take some time to really explore the verse in relation to this topic.  Listen to any wisdom these verses might have in regard to how we consume, the effects of what we consume or what forces affect what we consume.  Make a note of what you discover to share later.  See "Learn More About Ways to Study Scripture" below for help in getting the most out of the verse.

  • Psalm 49

  • Proverbs 3:9

  • Proverbs 4:25

  • Jeremiah 2:13

  • Matthew 4:3

  • Romans 5:5

  • Romans 12:2

  • 1 Corinthians 6:12

  • I Peter 5:8

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