The BluePrint - Practice Your Faith

All right, well we are in fill in the blank week of Blueprint series that we are in.

It's nine weeks altogether and thank you for continuing through this discipleship plan

with us.

This is a plan that we put together all the way back in year one of the church when we

started and this is the third time we're going through it.

We did it the first time that we did it five years later and now we're doing it four years

after that.

We keep coming back to it because these are important things that we need to learn about

how to follow God.

There are things that need to be reminded and as I was looking forward when we were

putting together this version of it, as I was looking forward to this week and thinking

okay how should we talk about that this week.

I was like you know what I really want to talk about how to begin practicing or to trust

God in stepping into practicing something that we know that He's instilled in us.

We know that there's something that God has put in us and we just need to go I'm going

to step out and I'm going to practice that.

I'm going to try that and there's going to be processes on how to improve and all.

And then as I was just sitting thinking I was like you know what I need to ask someone

else to talk about this.

And so I thought about my wife who is an author and a writer and a mother and a creative to

her very core and I reached out I said hey you know like I reached out like we don't

live together but I did.

I was at a coffee shop and I texted her and I said hey what do you think about this and

we just she started thinking about it and then she said yeah I'll definitely do that.

And so I hope that you see the joy that comes out of her as she talks about this that that

is something that God wants to be putting in you.

That if you as you talk about something about creativity about how to practice your faith

in one way or another a sign remember last week we talked about wisdom we talked about

peace of mind and heart.

But when we start to practice the faith that God has us I believe that that peace of mind

and heart is actually fertile soil for joy to come out of the things that he's wanting

us to practice.

And so I hope that is something that we walk away with today.

All right.

Are you guys ready.

And now Cindy Hampton.

Good morning church.

Oh my goodness.

What an honor and blessing to stand here in front of you this morning.

I mean that from the bottom of my heart like every time I started to think about this this

morning about getting up here and getting to talk to you guys I'm going to do it right

now.

I got so emotional because I love you guys so much.

And you've just become so dear in our lives and you've been on the same adventure with

us a lot of you and I'm really really really thankful and grateful for this community that

we have.

And yeah like I said just super huge honor to be able to stand up and share some stuff

with you this morning.

Like I said we're in the sixth week of our blueprint six.

We're in the sixth week of the blueprint and we've had so we've had five weeks before

this a blueprint comes with a lot of pages.

Our blueprint has eight pages or sometimes nine.

And so far I just wanted to recap.

We've gotten to learn together about rest.

That was page one.

We went on to live and then page three was abide in prayer and then on for four pastor

Chris talked to us about obeying God's word.

And last week for page five we learned about listening to the spirit.

And I know that's kind of a lot to recap of rest live abide in prayer obey God's word

listen to the spirit.

But it's important because what we're going to be talking about today as we turn our blueprint

to page six is the importance of it's important to know that material that came before us

because we're going to be focusing on practicing our faith.

So as Pastor Greg mentioned this topic is uniquely relatable to writing and because

I'm a writer I'm going to do my best to walk you through that.

I have been writing my whole life just a couple of weeks ago.

In fact I found a piece of paper at my mom's house and it was a poem written in pencil

on that like handwriting paper of like wide lines with dashes between.

And it was written by little Cindy Hussey in 1989 I think was the date.

But yeah I found this poem and it delighted me because I at first I was a little bit cringy

like oh my gosh do I want to read this.

What did my little heart come up with to like put on the page at age seven.

But I was delighted because it was about Jesus.

It was a poem about Jesus that I wrote.

And if you know me you know that it turns out I never really stopped writing poems about

Jesus or writing for Jesus.

My author identity was beaming when I found it.

It was like yes I really am made for this.

And in between that pencil Jesus poem and other poems and things that I've read in front

of thousands of people during conferences or Christmas Eve services there were also

angsty poems and angry poems and novels started and short stories and children's books and

angsty poems.

Did I mention that.

That was a big theme in my teenage years.

And my mom has always said Cindy is words pictures and songs and she has been ever since

she was little.

So yeah I have been writing for a long time.

And as we established earlier writing is a great metaphor for practicing your faith because

there is an initial idea and you spend time with it.

And then there's editing and revising and editing and revising and editing and revising.

You get the idea.

And we do these exact same things in relation to our faith.

So that's why I'm here this morning to share with you about that.

I'm super excited and honored.

And so yeah let's dig in.

We have a tradition of beginning our time together discovering these truths and engaging

in God's word by reading some scriptures aloud.

And so we're going to do that now.

And as always at the house we try to do our best at giving the scriptures our full attention.

So I invite you to help yourself do that however is best for you.

You might sit and listen with your eyes closed or you're invited to stand and read along.

You can open your Bible.

You can open your app.

But whatever you do and however you do it choose to do it in body and in spirit and

really take a quick second right now to open yourself up to the spirit and allow yourself

to give these words your full attention.

If you'd like to stand now you can.

Oh I didn't even know that was happening.

Thank you.

We're going to start in Exodus chapter 31.

Exodus 31 · chapter mention

So we're going to be in the Old Testament and then we're going to start.

And then I'm also going to read from John 15 starting in verse 1 so you can feel free

to join us there as well.

But to start you can open to the Old Testament Exodus 31.

We're in verses 3 through 6.

I have filled him with the spirit of God with wisdom with understanding with knowledge and

with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for work in gold silver and bronze

to cut and set stones to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of crafts.

Moreover I have appointed Ohaliab son of Ahisamak of the tribe of Dan to help him.

Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I've commanded

you.

Now we're going to fast forward into the New Testament John 15.

I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear

fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

You're already clean because of the word I have spoken to you remain in me as I also

remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine.

Neither can your neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

This last verse I'm going to read in the message translation.

I am the vine you are the branches when you are joined with me and I with you the relation

intimate and organic.

The harvest is sure to be abundant.

Separated you can't produce a thing.

Let's pray.

Good morning God.

Heavenly Father thank you for your word.

Thank you that you're a storyteller and that we are story formed people.

I pray that as we explore how you as the author of life designed us to practice our faith

we'll have a better understanding of our character that will be active in the plot

arc that you have for us that will be open to stepping into that.

Help us discover and use the gifts talents and abilities you've placed within each and

every one of us to grow your kingdom on earth and bring the light and love of Jesus into

everything we do.

Amen.

Okay.

So, as I was thinking about practicing your faith I actually approached it in a very not-creative

way which is kind of great.

I turned 40 this year.

I feel like I'm really starting to know who I am.

I feel like I'm very much a creative person but at the same time I love systems and science

and understanding how something works, right?

And so I approached this with some critical thinking and logic and I went, okay, well,

to have faith or you have to have faith to practice faith and to have faith you have

to trust God and to trust him you have to know him and to know God you have to listen

to him which is why the page before this in the blueprint is listen to the spirit.

What better way to get to know someone than to spend time with them and listen, right?

So the process of writing for me typically starts out with literally putting a pen to

paper and writing good morning God because before I start working on any ideas I have

I always involve the author of life.

In fact for me I usually think of myself as more of a typist than an author.

I ask God to tell his story through me and I pray that he'll give me ears to hear him,

eyes to see him, divine inspiration throughout my regular day routine to write the story

he wants to tell through me.

Just last month I was able to go on a writing retreat and work on the manuscript that I'd

like to finish this year and after having spent time with God and asking him those kinds

of questions of what do you want so to be to be about this became my so to be prayer

and I wrote it on the post-it.

I pray that this story empowers and draws readers to press on, to find community.

I pray it shows faith is met with your faithfulness and that if the answers had been easy to come

by so many other important lessons and experiences would have been missed.

Amen.

And that's what I know that book is going to be about because I'm just taking dictation.

I'm listening first.

So that's where we're actually going to start as we break down this idea of how to practice

your faith.

First you listen because you need to know him.

So going back to our verse in John, this is red letter stuff.

Jesus is literally like, let me tell you a little bit about myself in the garden of life.

I am the vine.

My father, your heavenly father is the gardener.

Okay, so here we are.

We're beginning to know him.

He's introducing himself.

We're able to identify him.

And what's going to happen next is we're going to be able to have a better awareness of our

own identity in him.

The next thing he says is you are the branch.

It's a beautiful thing how when we begin to know God better, we begin to know ourselves

better.

The reason this is true is also found in scripture.

It's one of the first things God's word shares with us at the very beginning, in the beginning.

In fact, it's in the very first chapter of the very first book of God's word, Genesis

126.

Then God said, let us make people in our image to be like ourselves.

Continuing on.

So God created people in his own image.

God patterned them after himself.

So earlier I asked, raise your hand, did you say you were a naturally creative person?

How many?

Okay, okay, good, good, good.

Sometimes when I meet people and they discover I'm a writer and an artist, they're like,

wow, you're so creative.

Or like, oh my gosh, you actually like draw and paint.

You're like a real artist.

Oh my gosh, that's so cool.

You're so lucky.

And almost inevitably after that like sentiment is shared, the next sentence is something

like I could never do that.

I don't have a creative bone in my body.

Okay?

But that's the beautiful thing about creativity.

And that's why I wanted to read those verses from Exodus.

Here's this great idea in the Bible that the wise and ever loving God gives his workers

wisdom.

And he gives them the skill sets needed to create something beautiful.

This is the bridge between listening to the spirit and practicing our faith.

Wisdom and God's character expressed through our creativity.

God says I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I command you.

See, so you don't need stone or wood or bronze or a paintbrush or pen or word document to

be creative.

Creativity is 100% accessible and applicable to every part of every single one of your

lives whether you raised your hand earlier or not.

And I'll tell you why.

It's because you're created in the image of the heavenly father.

And if we're made in his likeness, then we can have faith because he's faithful.

And we can be creative because he's creator.

And this is why I read that last verse from John as the message translation earlier.

I get excited about words as a writer person because there's this perfect, exactly, wonderfully

chosen word.

The relation between the vine and the branch is intimate and organic.

That word, organic, natural.

You are naturally meant to find your identity in the father.

And you are naturally creative.

And these two things are what's going to make practicing your faith possible.

As we begin to know God better, we can then begin to discover and understand our own identity

as we're connected to him and we remain in him, which is important because the closer

we get to the final step of practicing our faith, the more important it is to have an

established understanding of exactly who you are.

So then just like how in practicing your faith, the next step after listening is knowing him

so you can know yourself, the same thing happens in my writing process.

After listening, then I'm getting to know the main characters.

When I started writing The Adventures of the Brothers Brave and Noble, I came to this moment,

it was very, very early on, like really just the first couple of weeks that I decided I'm

going to start writing this story down.

And I began describing the dad of the main character and their relationship.

And as I was writing, it was kind of coming out that the dad was maybe a workaholic and

the son was bitter about it and their relationship was beginning to falter because of it.

And I was like a page and a half, almost two pages into writing all of this when suddenly

I just knew it was wrong because I knew him.

I knew the kind of character he was and that he couldn't be that way and have this going

on.

Every story needs conflict, but this wasn't the conflict of this story.

These were not the true characteristics of these people.

I knew exactly who they were.

And so to stay true to that, I had to shape the story differently.

So far we've established we're going to listen and then we'll know God and then we'll know

ourselves.

And we have to do those things first because the next thing is the hardest part of both

the writing process and the concept of practicing your faith.

But it isn't as hard if you listen to him and you know him because it's trusting him.

My published novel, The Adventures of the Brothers Brave and Noble, began a very long

time ago when Brennan was probably three or four and Liam was like maybe one or two.

And we lived in Georgia and I was telling Brennan a bedtime story before he went to

bed.

And because we're creative, story loving people, I always like to incorporate Brennan in that

storytelling process.

So on this night, like over 13 years ago, I looked out his bedroom window into the woods

that met up to our backyard and I started telling Brennan about two big boys who were

brothers named Brave and Noble.

For those of you who don't know, those are Brennan and Liam's middle names.

And I began with simple little things.

Brave and Noble wanted to go on an adventure in the woods behind their house.

So they packed themselves a lunch.

What did they put in their lunch, Brennan?

And he'd say, peanut butter and jelly and Lightning McQueen fruit snacks.

And I'd say, yeah.

And then once they made it out to the creek, Brave couldn't believe his eyes.

He saw, what did he see, Brennan?

And Brennan said, a golden horse.

I said, that's right.

Something right there in front of Brave and Noble was a radiant golden horse.

And if they thought they were as shocked as they could be, they were wrong because then

the horse spoke to them.

He said, hello, my name is, what was his name, Brennan?

And Brennan said, Demel.

No, Finnick.

And I said, you're right.

He said, hello, my name is Demel Finnick.

And it got really good from there, guys.

Yeah, it did.

But seriously, we really did, we fell in love with these boys that we were telling a story

about in their golden horse.

And I decided, I think I want to start writing this down.

So I did.

And I kept asking Brennan questions.

And I started asking Greg questions too.

He was such a great sounding board and helped me come up with some of the best ideas that

are in that book.

So it was about two years later, I finished what became a book.

And I had this massive, quite literally massive manuscript.

It was, here today, I can say it was admittedly too long.

There were too many words, way too many words, which is a typical problem to have when you're

a first time writer.

I gave it to some friends to read and one said, I could tell you really love words.

Bless his heart, right?

His like successful, professional, multi-published by publishing houses, real and actual novel,

novelist heart.

I could tell you really love words.

Another friend told me it was good, but the word count needed to come down.

And he had an editor he thought that would be a good fit for me.

So I will tell you, these initial feedback moments, they didn't bother me too much.

They were general.

They didn't spend a lot of time with my manuscript.

They read it through once, probably skimmed it because they knew it was too long.

They told me what they thought and that was it.

Great.

So Greg and I decided, okay, yeah, no, let's have it professionally edited.

And my friend was right.

This editor was a good fit for me.

Jamie would email me updates and tell me what she love, love, love, loved.

And we just kind of became friends.

We'd email, we'd keep up with each other on Facebook.

We Skyped a couple of times.

She absolutely became a friend.

And I got Jamie's first pass on the manuscript back.

It was awesome.

She had a lot of changes and suggestions, but was very thorough.

And I was excited that this was going to make my book better.

I went through everything, doing my best with what she'd suggested and taught me.

And I sent it back.

When I got Jamie's second pass back, I did not take it as well.

That first go, nothing massive was cut out.

She wasn't asking for anything huge.

Round two.

She cut the entire first chapter, which was my favorite scene of the whole book.

It was a scene which depicted this family exactly the precious and perfect way I wanted

them to be received by the reader.

I knew this was how I would introduce them to this book, to these precious people who

did precious things.

And she told me I had to get to the plot faster and that nobody cared about these precious

people in the way that I cared about these precious people.

And then she cut over 20,000 words and told me that we had to come up with a way to add

an entirely new concept that would weave throughout the entire thing from beginning to end.

I was devastated.

Like legit.

Had to take a moment outside by myself.

Devastated.

It was my baby.

And she took a whole thing away.

Greg came out and sat next to me out on the deck and we talked about Jamie, who we had

come to know her to be.

And we talked about the story.

And we talked about me, who I am.

And by the end of it, we decided she was probably right and I should try it.

And we trusted her.

But I'm not going to lie.

I cried a lot.

I cried a lot that night.

And when I opened the document again, it was not the next day or the day after that.

I needed a minute.

I waited a full week before I even opened the document.

But when I did, I saw again next to every change she made, there was this little bubble

where she made a note of why she deleted this or moved that.

She'd write the grammar rules and how to know which thing to use here or there.

And sure, occasionally there was a note that was like, be more writerly.

And at that time, it was very cryptic and it drove me nuts.

But now that has become one of my most helpful and favorite things to keep in my mind when

I write.

And we ended up having three passes back and forth.

The beginning changed.

An entirely new element was added to it.

And we ended up still using my favorite precious scene.

Oh, bless her heart.

And instead of the first chapter, which, you know, starts here, my favorite precious moment

is here.

It's still there.

You just have to wait a minute to get there.

And it was phenomenal.

I listened to her.

I knew her.

I trusted her.

She pruned me.

I cried.

I trusted her because I knew her and I knew she knew me.

And I wrote that third draft in faith.

I think back to the night on the back deck and how hurt and sad and angry and stubborn

I wanted to be.

And then I hold this book in my hand and I like literally just chuckle to myself because

it's so much better.

So much better, remarkably better than my first or second draft.

I'm the vine.

You are the branches.

When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest

is sure to be abundant.

Separated, you can't produce a thing.

Faith yields abundant harvests.

Having faith is like preparing a plan in your spirit and in the kingdom.

When you know God and trust God and have faith in God, you'll be ready for that harvest at

any moment.

Have faith that God will use you if you'll be willing, if you'll practice the process.

So I practiced the editing process a lot with that first manuscript.

And when it was finished, we let it sit for a while.

I always said that if all it ever was was a family treasure that we all worked together

to create, that was pretty super cool and more than we could have ever asked for it

to be.

It was a really great story that I knew I could be proud of.

So then a lot of life happened, like two or three years worth of life, actually.

We were busy.

And then one spring, I got a phone call from Greg.

Hey, babe.

Hi.

I might have accidentally published your book.

What?

I accidentally self-published your book on Amazon.

What?

So come to find out.

Greg wanted to surprise me for my birthday or Mother's Day that year.

And so he wanted to have a copy of the book bound and printed for me.

He designed a cover.

He put the document in the CreateSpace website, service site, and he was going to have a copy

of the book shipped to me.

Super thoughtful gift, right?

So he's telling our very own David Jenulus, who's serving in Treehouse right now because

he's awesome.

He was at Chipotle and they were having lunch and he's telling them about it or something

like that.

And David's like, she wrote a book.

What's it called again?

And while Greg's talking, David, unbeknownst to Greg, was searching on his phone on Amazon

for the Adventures of the Brothers Brave and Noble by Cynthia L. Hampton.

And so Greg's talking more about how it all works and stuff.

And all of a sudden, David just holds up his phone and he shows Greg the screen that says,

thank you for your purchase of the Adventures of the Brothers Brave and Noble by Cynthia

L. Hampton.

Yeah, that's it.

How did you...

What?

And David's like, I just bought it.

So Greg discovers when you use this print service, which is owned by Amazon, it automatically

creates an ISBN for your book and it makes it searchable, discoverable, available to

the universe by adding it to their gigantic online bookstore.

So was I nervous about having the story out there?

Yep, 100%.

But at the same time, guys, I knew it was really as exactly right and as good as it

could be.

And I was ready when the time came for harvest.

Yeah, because then David shares his purchase on Facebook.

I just bought my friend's book.

People are liking it, sharing it, tagging me, buying it.

The harvest is sure to be abundant.

And then most importantly of the process for both practicing your faith and writing is

just keep writing, keep doing it.

Anne Lamott is an author I really love.

She writes about faith and life and writing and in her book, Bird by Bird, she encourages

the writer to write every day, even if it's a grocery list, she says.

Send to paper every single day.

And that's the kind of challenge I can manage.

The reason she encourages a writer to do that is because practicing your craft every single

day makes you a better writer.

Practicing our faith is no different.

The best way to get better at it or to understand it is to employ the skill daily.

So how do we do that?

I've got some ideas.

So we talked about that process of like to practice your faith, you have to have faith.

To have faith, you have to know God and then you can trust him because you know him.

So first off, are you listening for the story God's wanting to tell through your life?

Pray and ask him to give you eyes to see and ears to hear and make time to listen.

And then are you reading his word?

In the writing world, we love to say to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader

because you have to be reading good books to write good books.

So are you reading his word and then really listening to it when you do and asking the

spirit to speak to you through it.

And then after that, we are listening, do you feel like you know God well enough and

that you're confident in your identity in him?

A more specific question might be, what are the characteristics of God you love that help

you understand your own identity?

This is something I love to do because I'm a writer, so I'm constantly like filtering

through things through a character study lens, but I most often find myself enjoying the

truth that God is faithful and that God is creator and that because he's faithful, I

have faith and because he's creator, I'm creative.

But how can understanding that help you practice your faith?

And then think about, do you trust him?

Sometimes it can be difficult to trust God in a situation and for me, I found how empowering

it can be to remind yourself of the times when you trusted and he came through.

Your testimony is a powerful motivator to your spirit and also to your human head.

I talk about that a lot with myself and within our family.

There's like your heart and what it might tell us at once and then there's our human

head and it might tell us what it thinks is true, but there's the spirit and whatever

the spirit wants is going to be what's best and you can always know that the spirit of

God is true and trustable.

So when you're having a hard time trusting God, think back on a time when you did and

the outcome was so obviously better than anything you could have dreamed up initially or would

have missed out on if you hadn't trusted him.

And after you've done that, it's time to practice your faith.

So something really cool that I realized just even in writing this, I hadn't really thought

about it until I was looking through what I had down is that you can't forget you're

not alone.

Having faith and practicing your faith is easier when you have a support system around

you.

So I went to Exodus first.

I appointed Ohaliab and Ahisemek of the tribe of Dan to help him.

This is the person you ask to pray for you when you know you'll need it.

It's the person you go to with a tough decision, a sounding board, a prayer partner, a faith

backer upper.

Remember when I was talking about the editing process with Jamie and even in my writing

process, I was involving other people that were close to me every step of the way, Greg

especially.

And the other great thing that happens when you practice your faith that is encouraging

and beautiful is that when you practice your faith, it makes everything else fall into

place.

Remember remaining in him and him within you, it's that intimate and organic.

It's natural.

It's what your spirit needs.

You'll be amazed how it feels when that need is nurtured and met.

How this plays out in my personal life is so fascinating to me.

I've been writing my whole life, but it wasn't until after I had Brennan that I actually

began to learn that my brain was a creative brain and it needed a creative outlet.

I had really bad postpartum after I had Brennan and I went to see a counselor about it.

And he was also a Christian and he told me, God made you very creative.

Are you doing anything that lets you be creative now and then?

And he got teary-eyed and I said, no.

But I was also thinking, are you kidding me?

He has colic and I'm so sleep-deprived, I'm hallucinating cockroaches everywhere.

No, I have not drawn a picture lately.

And he told me, you know, your brain really needs a creative outlet.

And so that was super interesting.

He started talking with me about the science and things of like, when you're a creative

person and you allow your brain time to be used in a creative way, it calms down and

you find the rest of your day isn't as difficult to get through.

So I went home and I started working on some illustrations I had started for a children's

book that I wrote.

And that night and the next day, I felt amazing.

I was still tired because Brennan didn't sleep through the night until after he was eight

months old.

But even then, sparingly, but I wasn't hopeless or unmotivated anymore.

And then two years later, we moved to Georgia and I started writing on a very regular, nearly

daily schedule.

And I felt like unstoppable.

Dishes were done, floors were mopped, laundry was done.

I felt happy and focused when I practiced regularly, my entire life became easier and

better because it was what my brain needed.

Okay.

So here we are.

You're like, great, Cindy, I'm listening.

I'm secure in him and my own identity.

How do I get to be creative about the way I practice my faith?

Well, the answer to this question is going to be different for everyone because we're

all made differently, but the one who made us is the same.

So think about how you answered those earlier questions I asked, the thoughts on listening

and the characteristics that stick out to you about your heavenly father.

And ask yourself if maybe that's because those might be the brightest divine attributes

you shine just by being who he made you to be.

He says, I have filled them with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with

knowledge and with all kinds of skills.

For me, I know that it is faithfulness and creativity and I know those are the characteristics

of God I identify most with because they're my most natural way of connecting to and remaining

in God.

So for you, it could be wisdom or generosity or loving kindness.

Maybe you just have a really huge heart and you love loving people and it's easy for you

to do.

Use that awareness of your identity to guide the path you practice your faith on.

And then remember that nothing is too small or too anything for God to use.

The potential in this room is epic because God takes every act of faith and he puts it

to good use.

The verse goes on to say, I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything

I have commanded you.

There's no moment too menial or fleeting.

Maybe start just by looking at your day.

What's something you do the same every single day?

Do you always go to the same coffee shop or always have 15 minutes of time in the morning

where the house is calm and quiet?

One of my favorite ways of practicing my faith every day in my routine is when I drop off

our kids.

That's something I do every day, usually Monday through Friday.

So on the way to school, Wallace and Adley take turns reading aloud from this book of

scripture decrees specifically for kids.

And we fill our car with words of encouragement and affirmation.

And then when we get out, I feel I can just see the light and love of Jesus all over them.

And I imagine it twinkling out of the car and following us along in this glittery trail

up to the school and it kind of gets stuck on everybody that we go by.

And I intentionally smile kindly at kids walking and at parents.

And I look at them in the eye, say, good morning.

Have a good day at school.

Sometimes just daring to be kind in a mundane moment is the act of faith God is counting

on to use in that child or that parent's day.

So yeah, in the ordinary day to day, just like we sang this morning, maybe look at your

day and decide when is the best time to listen and get to know God better.

So I'm prepared for the time when practicing my faith is required.

I also started spending more time in the morning daily.

I would journal my prayers, just kind of stretch and do yoga and remind myself of who God is

and who I am.

And I still try to do that regularly.

Do I succeed every day?

No, but I'm trying.

And I absolutely can sense and see the difference it makes in how my faith works out through

the rest of my day.

So what's going on in your life that you could look at it and go, yeah, I could give my time

and attention at this moment, this car ride while I wait in line before everybody else

wakes up.

There are moments there if you seek them out.

I pray that this has been meaningful and life giving to you.

Something I've loved throughout this series is the way we've offered a practical and real

moment of practice in connection to each of these ideas.

Like think back to prayer.

We all took time to do a breathing prayer, hands up, hands down, and then we went through

a lectio divina together.

And that was really cool.

And so as I was talking with Greg about maybe what could the practical of this be, we talked

about maybe should we get a bunch of notebooks and have everybody do a free write and then

do an edit.

But I was just thinking like this particular idea needs more than three minutes at the

end of the sermon.

So I asked Pastor Greg, okay, well, what if we email these like five journal prompts this

week?

So later he'll talk about the connection card, but make sure that we have your email

because that's going to be our point of practice.

And I just think that this concept, it fits so much better to practice more than once.

Like we could do something at the end of the service here, but that's not the point.

Like the point is you're going to keep doing it and that's why it's going to get easier

or you're going to get good at it or you're going to be confident in it.

And so we're going to email out those ideas and each, so there'll be five of them.

You could do Monday through Friday.

You could break it up if you want, but just kind of a way to get your mind going on.

Do I have faith to practice faith?

And do I trust God so that I can know God?

And do I listen to him so that I can know him?

And then kind of diving into the characteristics and deciding, okay, yeah, like I can see God

in me in that area.

And I think that if I were to then pursue that area, how would that grow God's kingdom

on earth?

I'm excited for you guys to do it.

I hope that you will do it.

It can be, self-reflection is great and I think you could learn a lot about yourself

and I think that it could be a really wonderful thing for our community.

I think it could really explode things in the kingdom.

And yeah, I hope that you'll take it to heart.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for your character.

Thank you that we can trust you and we can know you.

Thank you that you're a God that is in relationship with us at every moment of every day.

The fact that we can pause and listen and that the Holy Spirit can speak to us is fascinating,

beautiful, incredible, humbling.

And so I just pray that in the coming week, you will help us remember that practicing

our faith maybe is more of an identity issue than anything else.

And that in order to practice our faith, we just really need to know who you are and understand

that we're made in your image and we're made in your likeness and that we are naturally

meant to be connected to you and we are naturally meant to reflect you, that there are parts

of you inside each and every one of us because we were made and patterned after yourself.

Bless us in this coming week, God, and thank you for each and every one of these people.

Amen.