Reflecting on the “Root Causes”
Several people asked me for a list of the questions that I read at the end of the message this past weekend. I promised I would post them here on the blog. Here they are.
What are you afraid of? What do you find yourself worrying about again and again and again? What is the unintended outcome that you can’t seem to get out of your head? What keeps you up at night?
How do you feel when things don’t go your way? Is it OK for you to make a mistake or does one wrong move seem to send you spinning out of control? Do you expect perfection from yourself or from others? How do you deal with a situation where you find yourself disappointed with yourself or someone else?
What does fear do to you? Do you find yourself trying to speed up to keep pace when you feel afraid? Do you find yourself drawing back into yourself, pulling back from relationships that are important to you? Do you ever feel exhausted from your stress? Do you have an appreciate for the emotional and spiritual damage that fear can cause in your life? Can the people who know you best see that damage? ?
Do you ever feel helpless? Do you ever worry that you’re not good enough? Do you sometimes feel like you are somehow lacking something in your life? That in some ways you don’t measure up to a particular standard? Who sets that standard in your life? It is you, a person who is close to you? Your parent? God? How do you think God feels about you and your life? If you were to picture God’s face, what expression do you see? Is God mad at you? Upset with you? Can you picture God smiling at you?
Do you believe that God loves you, believes in you, hopes for you, and is working in you? Do you believe that God cares about you, about the people that you care about, about the future you have imagined for yourself or those you love?
Do you know what it’s like to be paralyzed by fear? What would it look like to instead be motivated by love?




