On Faith (Part 2)

 OK... so I went to an LPL event on saturday. See On Faith Part 1 for background.

The easy part of an LPL event is the external experience. It starts with phenomenal worship. Then Beth comes to the stage and just starts talking about life and sharing stories from her life and the lives of those close to her. I am drawn in at that point. It's odd to me that I could be in a room with 6,ooo people and feel as if I was sitting in someone's living room. I will admit that there have been times in my life where I was more drawn to a person than what they had to say. As much as I would relish an opportunity to sit and talk with Beth, I would readily trade the opportunity just to hear from her whatever it is the Lord has put on her heart to share.

The hard part of an LPL event is reconciling the internal experience. Each event is different message-wise. All are deep. Saturday's event was internally insane for me. It's the reason why I'm feeling so very wordy. I feel like I got served something very meaty. I'm tired from chewing but feel like I have a long way to go yet. If you've ever watched the show "Man Vs. Food" you are familiar with the term "meat sweats". That's precisely where I figuratively feel I am now.

The driving point of the event was faithfulness. She compared life events for two unnamed women in the Bible (II Kings 4) and challenged us to consider where we fall on the spectrum between those two women. She talked about Girl A who had practically nothing and a big faith and Girl Z who had practically everything and had lost track of how to live a life of faithfulness. As usual, what Beth had to convey was rich. That's the best word I can use to describe how she teaches.

The first idea Beth shared that struck me was the notion that if you take the word "faith" out of "faithfulness" you are left with "fullness". When I was in my mid twenties I was part of church where I was involved with EVERYTHING. Part of the reason for that was that I was young and single. The social culture of the church was to participate in everything. I wasn't unhappy at all. I truly loved the ministries I was involved with. But, when I got married and moved away I was taken out of that culture. In my new town I began immediately to struggle with an extreme feeling of emptiness. I was paralyzed with fear, doubt, and confusion. I was just at a loss. Though, in the past 8 years I've come to terms with a lot of that, I was never able to understand so clearly what was wrong before. It occurred to me that the life I was living in my mid to late twenties was all about "fullness". The things I was participating in weren't unpleasing to God but didn't require faith on my part. In those years I was clearly like Girl Z. I felt like I had everything and didn't really need anything. I didn't even realize I needed a miracle.