Week 2: How to Light a Candle Under a Basket
- What stood out to you from the message this past Sunday? Was there anything that seemed timely or relevant to you? Was there anything which made you uncomfortable, or with which you disagreed?
- Read Mathew 5:13-16. Why do you think Jesus uses the metaphors of salt and light here. How are they similar? How are they different?
- How would you describe your own “light”? How do you personally experience that radiance and how do you think others experience it?
- When you think about your life, what messages have you accepted from yourself or others that has led you to a feeling of “shrinking”?
- What empowering message or scripture would you choose today to replace those negative ones?
- In what tangible way this week can you “remove the basket”?
- Take a moment to do this week’s Prayer Practice below together and discuss your experience of it afterwards. Then take a moment to pray for one another.
Prayer practice for this week: Letting our light shine
Take a few minutes each day this week to consciously and intentionally “shine”. Sit comfortably with your back straight, feet planted on the floor, arms relaxed, and hands supported in your lap. Close your eyes and relax your shoulders. To begin, listen to your breath as you breathe. Feel your breath in your nostrils and chest, as you gently inhale and exhale. Imagine you are breathing the very “breath of God” – God’s Spirit. As you breathe in, imagine that breath igniting the sacred flame within you. As you breath out, let go of fear, tension, and any negative thoughts about yourself. Imagine the flame within you burning brighter and brighter with each breath as you absorb the passion of God’s love for you. Consciously let go of anything that inhibits that brightness and imagine that your light radiating all around you. Stay in this place of quietude, acceptance, and the rhythm of your breathing as your light shines brighter and all that shields it gives way. As you finish this exercise move into your day with awareness of your light and intentionally shine