Welcome to this conversation

New Grooves - Episode 2: Remembering How We Groove. Way back when, Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness getting somewhere that should have taken a couple months. Before they crossed the finish line they stopped to remember who they had been so they could choose who they would be. It has been one year since George Floyd died in our neighborhood. The pandemic is cooling down, sort of, while political and social polarization and the environment are heating up. We are in the wilderness longer than we’d like and it is time to remember and choose new grooves for the other side.

Episode 2: Remembering How We Groove

“New Grooves may sound great, but they are hard because they mean change and it’s easier to just keep doing what you already know, whether it works or not. In fact, if you have been in a rut long enough, you may not even realize you are. Like that mess in your house you no longer see after six weeks. Messes you’d notice right away in someone else’s house, wondering why they don’t clean them up. But in your house, in your life, you’re blind to them.”

The old rut or a new groove, you need to choose.

And you need to remember. Remembering isn’t reminiscing. It isn’t longing for the good ol’ days. Remembering is recognizing where we are now and what got us here so that when we choose to be who we aspire to be. Your ability to move into the future depends on how well anchored you are in your past.

There was a problem for Moses and the people of Israel as they prepared to enter ‘The Promised Land’ (their new future) in the story from Deuteronomy that we have been tracing in New Grooves. They had been walking for 40 years and now were finally at the banks of the Jordan River, the border, and Moses wouldn’t let them cross. There was something to do first. Remember and Choose!

Something to consider:

What banks do you stand on today? What new groove awaits you? And what do you need to remember so that the new groove isn’t just a redecorated version of your old rut?

Life isn’t just A new groove, it is new groove after new groove after new groove.

Greg shared the illustration of an LP, a record, and its endless groove. It isn’t just a tedious going round and round, but the music that is played in the process. Each moment in your groove isn’t the destination, it is preparing you for what could be next.

Something to consider:  

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. Psalm 119.105

Listen to Greg’s story about learning what this verse is trying to tell us and consider how that has been true in your own experience.

DISCONTINUITY - Life in the groove.

QUESTION: Do you see life as basically discontinuous with occasional calm periods of stability? Or is life basically stable, equilibrium, with occasional transitions and moments of change?

Consider that discontinuity or change isn’t an exception, something you must deal with in life, but that it is life.

Discontinuity is made up of a rhythm of STABILITY and CHANGE.

The heart that never stops beating (change) but that also has part of it always resting (stability) is a model for how we are designed for a life of discontinuity.

• Instability (change) is the power for growth. If you let your COMFORT LEVEL depend on your STABILITY LEVEL, you’ll seldom be comfortable, because change, instability, is constant in our world.

• Stability is to be found deep down, not at the surface. If you find your stability on the surface, on the superficial, circumstances of life you are going to feel like the world is capricious, unreliable, and you are its victim. If you find your stability in a sense of self-worth that can encompass mistakes and failures, in community you can be vulnerable with and depend on, and in principles that are bigger than your situation, then you can not only weather change, it can drive you forward. 

Something to consider: Why do you think some people are better able to deal with change than others? How can you increase your ability and help others increase theirs?

Something to consider: Fabric, as a community, is designed to provide you with stability by weaving you deeply others and broadly with God. And to challenge you with change by weaving you into conversations that matter. How have you experienced that? Has it worked for you? How can you help us live out that rhythm more fully and healthfully?

Jesus spoke this long ago and it seems to be directed right at us as we stand on the banks of the rivers we need to cross.

"Come to me, all you that are weary… carrying heavy burdens. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy… my burden is light."    
Jesus, Matthew 11.28-30

Jesus has no intention of taking the yoke away from you. That yoke is growth. But he has no intention that you must carry it on your own either. He wants you to know that this path, the new groove, is where you will find life. Your heart’s desire.

More Resources…

Group Discussion Guide: Click HERE.