Spiritual Pathways || Phase 1 | Lesson Ten

Have you ever heard that the power of fear in our lives is seven times stronger than any other emotion that we've ever had? I've thought about that a lot and several scenarios come to my mind pretty quickly. We talked about emotions in the last session and how our emotions are experienced in our body, but when you think about fear being seven times more powerful than any other emotion, it makes you stop and think how easily being scared then can override rational thinking or even data that we know to be true. Back in my early 20s, I met some friends at a pumpkin patch one fall and it was a pretty chilly day. We were all bundled up and kind of circled up outside the pumpkin patch waiting on some other friends to arrive and what was unique about this pumpkin patch is that there were people dressed up as certain characters or animals or other roles that they were playing and they would surprise you as you would go through the pumpkin patch and I'm not really one for surprises. You can ask anybody that knows me well, I'm an easy scare, but we had not even started the pumpkin patch yet, so I was feeling really relaxed looking for other friends and as we stood there circled up talking, laughing, making small talk. I looked at my friend on the left and said a couple things and then I turned to look to my friend on the right and realized someone dressed as a gorilla had stepped right into our friend circle and as I saw the gorilla, I screamed, lost all feeling of my legs and peed my pants right there in the middle of my friend group, mortified, embarrassed, the whole works. A guy I was starting to date at the time was just like, oh, my Lance, I can't even, I'm embarrassed to be associated with me, but in that moment, I know that gorilla wasn't real. I know that we're standing outside this pumpkin patch knowing that we're going to be walking into this cornfield where people are going to pop out, but in that moment, that fear overrode everything else I knew to be true and as we continue to talk through how our emotions start in our mind, but then how our bodies respond as well, it is really important to remember what Matt said the last time, that just because we feel it doesn't mean

we have to run after it, just because we feel it doesn't mean that it is absolute truth. It's telling us something, but it's up to us to get curious about what it is that we are feeling and be able to rationally think through what to do with that. In Psalm 139, it says, God, you knit me together in my mother's womb, you put me together in my inmost being, that we believe that God made all of us, that he's not just interested in our behaviors, that he's interested in all the pieces of us and if you think back to the first part of this section of our pathway, there's those circles of how God made all of these things that are all kind of wrapped up together in us and today, we're talking about our bodies and our bodies are literally, it feels kind of silly for me to say it, but they're really our touch point for the physical world that is around us. As we re-experience all the physical things that are there, man, the way that our bodies are all put together or the way that God put us together in that Psalm 139 verse where we talk about it is really easy for me to see or connect with personally as we get into this thing about a body because when I first started getting sober and I was working with my therapist and I was working with different people in my treatment setting, they'd be like, Matt, what are you feeling today? And I really didn't know what I was feeling. I had no knowledge of what it was. They would be like, well, do you feel sad or do you feel anxious? And I was like, no, I don't really feel any way. And it's because I was so disconnected from myself that I didn't really know what was going on. And so what they had to help me do was work from a different place. It's like, OK, well, what are you feeling right now, like in your body, like what are you experiencing in your body right now? And I'm like, well, my stomach feels really, really nervous. And the day that we were doing this, it was like I was getting ready to have a phone call, a joint session with my wife. And there was a lot of things on the table of whether or not, you know, what our marriage was going to look like, if it was going to be there, if she wanted me to come home or not. And I had a lot of what I know now is anxiety around that.

But in the moment, I didn't know that I was feeling anxiety. All I knew was in my body, I was experiencing like an upset stomach and a nervous stomach. And there was a tightness in my chest. How God made us that we have thoughts that lead to feelings and feelings show up in our bodies. And the body is our touch point for the world. It's where we how we connect with the physical reality. Man, it's really funny or really kind of obscure facts about the body. But you know that if you took every nerve in your body and stretch them out, that it would be over 45. miles long. The 45 miles long would be the nerves that are inside of our bodies and that we believe that God created our bodies and what would it look like in your life if you looked at your physical body as that as something that I brought on to say God this is yours and I want to use this how I want to use this how you intended me to use it. One of the things I think I will never get tired of seeing is when when a client comes in or when you come in and that day one phase one or that place where we're we are on the tail end of the the choices that we've been making that have wreaked havoc on our physical bodies and you see after just a short amount of time after not very long comparatively we could go months or years of absolutely destroying our bodies with the substances that we were using and the choices we were making around those substances and in a very short amount of time you can I can watch as your body just comes back to life it's really incredible what happens when you eat what your need what you need to eat on a consistent basis and you you you get sleep like you need to get sleep on a consistent basis and you you just do the things that your body needs it to do to work and be healthy how you watch that thing come back to life if you look around and or you see people sometimes they share those like phase their their day one picture with where they're at now and you can see this dramatic difference usually and compared to how long they were using you can see this dramatic difference in their physical body from from where they were when they came in to where they're at now you know that that our bodies can

come back to life when we start doing the things we're supposed to do and there's a verse in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20 says you were bought at a price therefore honor God with your body now if you have any kind of a church context coming into this you may have you may have heard these heard this verse with like a shaming message attached to it like how dare you do this or I can't believe you would do this honor God with your body you're a sinner and you may have locked that he may have locked on that second part of that of that verse but what I don't want us to miss it from the second part of the verse is the first part of the verse that you were bought at a price value is determined by what somebody is willing to pay for something like I can tell you that I have this item that's worth however much money it's worth and I can say it's worth a thousand dollars but if all you're willing to give me is a hundred bucks then the only thing that's worth is a hundred bucks and so when you think about yourself right now thinking about like that we we want to honor God with our bodies yes but that you were bought at a price that the the value that God determined that you were worth was he was willing to pay the fist the life of his son while he was here on earth that you were bought at a price it's like knowing that you you you show up for court and and you get that pre-sentence sheet that's got all your charges on them and you're expecting to see this list of all the things that you that you've done and all the things that you're gonna have to pay back or you're gonna have to pay for because of the actions that you did and looking at that pre-sentence sheet and looking and seeing them that it's all been dropped or it's been paid or it's been satisfied because that's what we have access to that's that's what we have with Jesus and and that the heat he paid that debt for us that it's paid in full and you were bought at a price he was willing to pay his life for you so with that being the foundation what does it look like for us to honor God with our bodies to say God you gave me this I can't trade it in for a newer model I want to be as present as I can in this mission that you've given me to stay sober and to help other people find sobriety think about how different your life

would look or grasp onto that right now what would your life look like if you if you step into a place where you say God I want to bring I'm giving this body that I have I want it to be in line with how you made it to be because I trust the God that paid the price for me as we have started to talk about spiritual formation and how God designed us to best work sometimes we can find ourselves getting stuck in a rut maybe you find yourself stuck thinking feeling saying or even choosing things you know you shouldn't do but it's just kind of part of our daily routine and one of the resources that we're gonna introduce in your workbook today is a and a resource called revelation wellness and in the book, you'll find some talking points, you'll find some activities, some things that you can read through, but the main premise of this is that sometimes our minds can be paralyzed or just so stuck in a rut that our bodies have to move to get our mind going again. And so the whole basis of this lesson is to help us feel empowered to get up and get moving. Maybe it's taking a walk and reminding yourself of truths as you take a walk. Maybe it's going online to an exercise class that's set to some uplifting music that reminds you that your identity lies in Christ and that you have purpose. Whatever it may be, lean into that moving your body piece to help your mind reset. In John 3 16, we talk about, you know, Jesus paid the price. God sent his only Son to die for those who believe so that we won't perish but have everlasting life. And then going on into verse 17, it says, Jesus came not to condemn but to save. And so one of the ways I've helped get my mind unstuck and sometimes just even remind myself of positive things that I can say, truth statements that I can say to myself when I'm walking or when I'm doing some sort of physical activity is I'll take Post-its and I'll put them wherever I'm gonna be. Maybe it's the bag of my gym clothes and leave a Post-it in there. Maybe it's on the mirror where I'm gonna brush my teeth before I go take a walk. So a Post-it note like Jesus came to save could be one that you could remind yourself of. Another Post-it might be I was created in the image of God. I have purpose. I am loved. Whatever those affirmations might be that would help you get your mind trained again. It's just like working a

muscle that when it goes dormant for a while it's weak and it's not strong but the more that we remind ourselves of the things of Christ, the more we remind ourselves that our identity lies in Him, the more that muscle will grow and strengthen and that will more quickly become our go-to rather than the same old stuck paralyzing patterns that we've experienced in the past. So check out your workbook and take some time today to dig into those resources and get moving. you