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No Longer Tossed Around – The Formed Future · Still, Here

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is still here.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: A quiet moment to remember what is true.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words from the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 14.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: That we may no longer be children tossed back and forth and carried about
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in craftiness after the wiles
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: of error.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are seasons when life feels less like walking and more like being carried.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not carried in the gentle way of grace.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Carried by pressure.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: The news changes.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Work changes.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: The economy shifts.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Technology moves faster than we can absorb it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Another message appears before we have answered the last one.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We solve the next problem.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Make the next adjustment.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And keep moving because that is what the day requires.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: From the outside, that can look like steadiness.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Inside, we may know something else is happening.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are reacting.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Circumstances are setting the pace.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever arrived most recently gets the strongest voice.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Paul gives us an image for that.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about being tossed back and forth and carried about by every wind.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: He is not shaming people for being affected by what happens around them.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: He is talking about maturity.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: A child can be moved quickly by what is loud, frightening, impressive or urgent.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: There is not yet enough inner weight to sort through the pressure
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: and decide what deserves a response.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Christ is growing that kind of weight in us.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritual maturity does not mean becoming impossible to disturb.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It does not mean we know enough to predict what is coming or control every variable.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: It means we are becoming steadier.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: We can feel the wave without having to become the wave.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: That matters because the future will bring things we cannot fully appreciate.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some changes may be exciting.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some may make life easier.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Others may unsettle the way we work, communicate, learn,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: But the first question is not, what will happen next?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: A better question is, who am I becoming while it happens?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: A tossed-around soul has to answer everything immediately.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is pulled by fear, urgency, outrage, novelty, or the need to stay in control.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: A maturing soul can pause.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: It can listen.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: It can remember what is true.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It can ask what love requires before reacting.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: That pause may not look like much, but it is part of growing up in Christ.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Think about one place where you have felt pushed into reaction lately.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a headline.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was something at work.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a family conversation, a financial concern, or a change you did not choose.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: You do not have to solve it right now.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just notice the wave.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: What is moving around you?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: What reaction is rising in you?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you gave Christ a little room before you responded, what might become possible?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: The pause itself can become a practice of steadiness.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The formed future begins there.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not when we finally understand everything that is coming.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: But when we discover that the world around us does not have to make every decision
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: within us, you are not helpless in the waves.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Christ is growing you into the person who can stand.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Take a moment for this prayer of presence.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, grow me up in you.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: When life moves faster than I can absorb it,
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Help me notice when pressure has begun making my decisions for me.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Form a steadiness within me that is not rooted in control.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Teach me to stand in your truth,
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: receive your love, and respond from the life you are forming in me.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: When the waves move around me, keep me close enough to you to know the next faithful response.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: As you return to what's waiting for you, carry this prayer with you.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: When the waves move around me, grow steadiness within me.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay steady, stay open, stay present.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: You are still here.