Journey RVA Podcast

Every person longs for meaningful friendships. We are wired for them. Yet far too many of us have grown to be adults with too little relational connection. What if we lived as a community of people who walked through our days with attentiveness to the opportunities we have to invest in the lives of others? What if, instead of just letting people pass us by, we actually took the time to invest in them.

Jesus extends an invitation to all people. So we want to be a community of people who are on mission together so that more and more people accept Jesus' invitation and find their way back to God. An invitation starts with identifying people who we know who might be ready to receive Jesus' invitation.

In the decisions that come our way, we are faced with many choices, but oftentimes we end up going from one thing to the next and are never able to discern the important from the urgent. This can cause us trouble. However, as we read in the Gospel of Luke, there is only one priority that we should focus on.

Fear is an emotion caused by belief of impending potential distress, misfortune, or loss. It's based in the future. The source of our fears is usually something we're going to lose or we're afraid we won't have in the future. Since we can never really know what's the around the corner, is it even possible to live without fear and worry?

Do you remember the board game slogan, "You learn about life when you play The Game of Life"? It's true. We do learn about life when we play games. But too often, the lessons we learn aren't healthy ones . . . especially when we play The Mind Game. Relationships built on The Mind Game can't survive.

We all love games, but playing games in relationships is dangerous. Approaching relationships as though someone has to win and someone has to lose is a bad idea. One game we tend to play in our relationships is The Change Game. There's nothing more toxic to a relationship than secretly trying to change the other person. It feels awful. It doesn't work. And it will eventually destroy the relationship. The good news is there's a better way.