Sweet Escape

A pocketful of sunshine wouldn't we all love to have that??? So many thoughts on so many things running around in my hanster wheel in my noggin. Addiction can happen with so many things. Sex,drugs,alcohol,shopping,food,work,gambling,exercising,serving in church. The list is endless because we have endless ways to become addictive in what we pursue. What drives the addiction??? Pleasure I think, although the pleasure is not fulfilled as it once was dreamt of when the addiction began. Avoiding pain, inner nagging emotional pain. Normal means do not resolve it. Something about the thing we become addicted to has a lure for usm a scratch we just need to itch even when we know deep down it really isn't the best thing for us.

I have been wanting to start a group with people at my church for awhile now, a group that incorporatesa lot of things into it. i want to call it *risking openness* i want it to be a group where everyone can risk opening up about the toughest things, and everyone in the group can accept and return the risk in kind. There are so many reasons why this fails when tried so often. We are scared to open up and be exposed to others. We fear rejection yet again and being torn in our most vulnerable place by people we thought would not do that. We all have our owm baggage of junk we have done to others or had done to us. We are a curious mixture of all kinds of things both good and bad and usually only God is given access to most of it.

I saw a post at Missio Dei tonight by my blog friend tracy simmons. It was about how she has participated in a group called Thrive, It is a missional discipleship group. Tracy spoke of how this group has transformed her life and all the lives of those in it, because they were willing to risk with each other. Risk at a very deepl evel where most people won't go, at least that has been my experience lo these 47 years. So incredibly cool and exciting to hear about!!! I pray i can be one who would risk what i need to in order to lead and make such a group happen. Baring all so openly on this blog is risky. If some people in my real life ever read some things it would be very scary. It is worth it though. Freedom and responsibility. May God grant us all a healthy dose of both!!!