Spiritual Pathways || Phase 1 | Lesson Three

In my early adult life, I spent a lot of time in the classroom as a teacher, mainly with primary age kids, kindergarten, first, second, but one thing that was really important in any subject area was being mindful of learning styles. And whether you know it or not, each of you are wired a certain way to learn best. There are eight different options out there. It could be anything from being a verbal processor and needing to talk through things, or it could be more hands-on movement. You need interactive materials like blocks if you're learning basic math concepts. Maybe you're an audio learner and you need to hear things before you can retain that information that you're trying to absorb. Whatever it is, we all interact with information in different ways, and that is something that we can be excited about rather than use it as comparison to us not being as good as someone else. But specific with learning styles, one thing across the board that's really important is being able to ask questions. And I know a lot of us come from backgrounds where maybe we were shamed and not given that safe space to ask questions, but asking questions is so important to gaining clarity, to being able to better understand whatever it is you're trying to learn. It could be something as simple as, what's the difference between baking powder and baking soda? Because when you're baking, that matters. Or what's the difference between a fine point marker and a thick point marker? Because that's a big difference if you're writing your name on something that's going to be permanent. I have a nephew who had a preschool teacher once, and he asked his teacher, Miss Susie, does everybody have a crack in their butt? And so it could be a question about anything. But use this time, whether you're connecting with your small group leader there or with a group leader in another setting, to lean in and ask questions. Because what you are learning is important, and we want to make sure that you get it the way you can understand it best.

God is big enough for your questions. We don't experience emotions that He didn't give us, wire us, make us, and create us with the ability to experience. The minds that we have, the questions that we have, God is big enough for our questions, and that's something so important for us to understand in this journey of healing and recovery is that it's okay to ask God the questions. It's okay, especially in a place where science and God seem to be against each other. We do the same thing with faith, right? We think, if I just have enough faith, then I'll be okay. If I have any doubt, that means I don't have faith. It feels like we put doubt and faith on opposing teams, just like we put God and science on opposing teams. But I would say that faith and doubt are not opposed to each other. They're really linked. Because faith, to me, is choosing to believe even though there's good reason to doubt. Choosing to believe even though there's reasons why this may not work. That's what faith is. There's a quote from A.W. Tozer that says, What comes to mind when you think of God is the most important thing about you. And I would say that statement is incredibly true when it comes to those of us that are in recovery. What comes to mind when you think of God is the most important thing about your recovery. Because He made all of us. The physical side, the emotional side, the spiritual side. He made all of that, all of us. And all of those things coming together is where we can find a way to experience the life that He wants us to have. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3, it says that He has set eternity in our hearts. That where we're created for something that is larger and bigger and something we long for something that we can grasp to or cling to that is eternal.

And knowing that believing God is a challenge. Believing God is something that is difficult. And that's what I think is so beautiful for those of us that have wrestled with addiction. That was one of the most beautiful things about me when that gift of desperation hit. Because trusting God is risky. Because it's impossible for me to understand my relationship with God without understanding or unpacking or grasping my relationship with other people. And so if God is real, I don't know if I can trust that or not. And so it's like trusting God is difficult, but the beautiful thing for me with that gift of desperation that I got was, if trusting God is 50-50, if trusting God is a coin toss, like I don't know if this is gonna work or not, the beautiful thing is 50% is way better than zero. And I was, I am at the fundamental belief about myself that if I am the one who is making the decisions or I'm the one who I'm counting on, if me being is the answer, the hope and the solution is zero. So if God is 50, you're telling me there's a chance. Faith and doubt are not against each other. So if you're wrestling with doubt right now, be encouraged to know that maybe that means you're really wrestling with your faith. And say, man, I don't know, Matt, I don't even know if I can believe in God or not. That's a beautiful place to be, because if you're not sure if you can believe that God is real, you're telling me that you might be thinking that God is real. And God is big enough, and God loves enough.

God will step into a place, no matter how small that is, and say, I don't even know if God is real or not. Because if you're not sure if he's real, that means you might be thinking that he's real. And God is big enough for your questions. As Matt talked about God being big enough for our questions, I think one of the things that's most important as we continue through these sessions is that we understand God and science are on the same team. We've learned a little bit about the brain and how that's wired, and today we're gonna learn just a little bit about the creation of trees and how God wired those to work. In your workbook, you'll see a picture of a tree ring that's labeled with different parts. I have a little sample of one here, and you can see as you look closely the rings that are darker, some that are more closely together than others. There's some areas of shading. And I wanna read to you from your book the sample tree ring that you have in there. This tree that you're looking at in your workbook is 62 years old. It's been through fire and drought, plague and plenty, and all of this is recorded in its rings. Each spring and summer, a tree adds new layers of wood to its trunk. The wood formed in spring grows fast and is lighter in color because it consists of larger cells.

In summer, the growth is slower. The wood has smaller cells and they're darker in color. When the tree is cut, the layers appear as alternating rings of light wood and dark wood. Count the dark rings and you'll know the tree's age, but study the rings and you can learn so much more about the tree. Many things affect the way the tree grows, and because of that, it alters the shape, thickness, color, and uniformity of the rings in the tree. And as you can see there in your workbook, there's a specific example to this tree ring that you see there, and you can learn about the life of that tree. And what we'd like for you to do is to think of your life as tree rings. There are different moments that have made up who you are. There have been seasons of plenty and everything that you need, and then there have been seasons of drought or neglect or hardship, and that has shaped the way the tree rings of your life story have come together. So we'd love for you to take some time in your workbook and think through the questions. What lessons have you learned from the tree rings of your life story? What has your story taught you about yourself? What has your story taught you about reality?

What has your story taught you about others? And what has your story taught you about the world? And for those of you that are artsy, which I can't do more than a stick figure, we have a page there for you to be able to do a sketch. If journaling or writing is hard for you, but sketching is life-giving and you feel like you can express your thoughts that way, we want you to use that space to be able to do that as well. But take some time and ask the Lord to show you the different areas where you have experienced both positive and negative things, and how He is using those to shape your story, and how He is using those to help you come alongside others to help them take healthy steps forward as well.