Hi everybody, this is Jayson! I’m excited to kick off our Core Values devotions and recognition of others in Christ’s kingdom. We want to review our core values every month so that by the time we get to the end of the year, we have reviewed our Core Values twice. The goal is recognizing others and calling out the good work that others are doing in His name.
The first core value is being Jesus-centered. We’ve landed on five things that help describe being Jesus-centered. The first and foremost is that we proclaim that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. The second is that we are spending time in the Word (The Bible). The third is that we have a routine that allows us to follow the spiritual disciplines. The fourth is that we pray for the ministry, we pray for teammates, we pray for people that engage in ministries for the people that we serve. And the last one is that we celebrate that we all have a personal unique journey with Jesus. It’s OK to celebrate that, share that, and really live that out.
I thought about, what is some good scripture to lean back into. I’ve heard for years Proverbs 3 verses 5-6. It’s really about being Jesus-centered. It says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.” So it’s really about, boy, if we can stay aligned, centered with Jesus, that helps keep our path straight.
So what I’d like you to do as group now is to discuss these questions.
- When was a time where you leaned into what Jesus was asking you to do, what was He calling you into doing?
- What was really the fruit that came out of that?
- How did you grow in engaging with that?
For me, I would say my biggest one was really my journey that led to The Well, being involved in The Well and ultimately staff at The Well. You know, I shared my story multiple times. It’s probably been 15 or 20 years ago now when I clearly heard the Lord tell me “Jayson, I gave you your past for a purpose”. And as you know, my past is made-up of a lot of poverty-related things, and hurt and pain. The list goes on. For me, it was hard to say Yes. It was hard to say I’m going to go back and re-experience some of the things I’ve experienced a child and help others through that. I think what was hard was me getting in the way of it, and maybe not having the healing to serve well. So it was hard stepping into The Well, even as a volunteer. Then becoming staff and recognizing and seeing other people’s pain and sitting in on other people’s pain.
I think what Jesus has taught me really over the last handful of years is, what is grace? What does it really mean? What does it really look like? He’s taught me about believing the best in one another and recognizing the fact that you can be talking to someone that you know is not telling you the truth. But you’ve got to sort of shift your perspective a little bit, and ask yourself, why would they be doing that? It’s not because of me. It’s stuff that they are processing and stuff they’re trying to deal with. I’d say for me ultimately it was recognizing the fact that this life on this earth is not about me; it’s about staying centered, aligned “upward” with Him, so we can do “outward” really well with others.
So I’m going to challenge you. Share your story with one another. Share an example of when you said yes to Jesus and what was the fruit that came out of it. And then I want to encourage you to go recognize that value in others. In your area that you serve, even outside of your area. At The Well, you’ll find a corkboard displayed that recognizes this core value. We invite our staff and volunteers to fill out a card for a person who has exhibited this core value, provide the example of how you see it, and post it to recognize and bless them. We really just want to celebrate the great, great things Jesus is doing. Through us, around us, in us, through others. And boy, just relish what He does and how He does it. Thank you staff and volunteers for participating in this. I urge you to fill out cards, we look forward to reading and hearing about things going on in your areas!