That same pastor also recently finished up a three-sermon series called "Project 68" that was based on Micah 6:8. The sermon topics were justice, kindness, and humility (respectively). I thought it was a fantastic series - probably because it issued real challenges to me.
The justice sermon dealt more with social justice than justice for criminals. An example of this would be justice for children working in sweatshops across the world. The prophetic books in general, but specifically Micah, spoke out often about bringing justice for the poor, widowed, and orphaned. So, likewise, we should make these under-served people a concern in our own lives.
The kindness sermon was all about loving love, which sounds weird - I know. But the premise was to love bigger and better than we are right now. Simple in theory - hard in practice.
The third sermon, humility, was more or less about relinquishing control in our lives, finding ways to humbly say "I am not God."
Each week, Pastor J offered us a different, but simple, project:
Justice - find one way to promote justice for those who are marginalized.
Kindness - find one way to love better and bigger in your life.
Humility - relinquish control over an area of your life that needs to be relinquished.Personally, I found that the challenges became harder each week, which is not what I expected. I would have expected for the challenges to get easier, considering what the topics were. But I had no trouble figuring out my justice project - that was easy. My kindness project was a little more difficult, but the Lord had a project kind of "fall in my lap" by the end of the week, which made that one a little easier.
However, my humility project is still unfinished because I have yet to really figure it out. It's something I've been praying through but haven't quite found the right area. Ironically, maybe that's the real issue - that I like to be so in control that I can't find any area that I'm willing to relinquish control yet. I'm not sure. Whatever the outcome, I know God will place something on my heart (if he hasn't already, and I've just ignored it).
(PS - I'm so blessed to be a part of a church that challenges me spiritually, in simple and complex ways. I can't help but marvel at God's divine plan for my life thus far.)
So which of these three areas do you struggle with the most?
