1.22.23 - Participating in Becoming Human (Kenny Camacho)

SCRIPTURE: Luke 13:6-9 & Isaiah 55:10-11


“If we believe in our hearts we are loved, that Jesus is tending our roots, we can delight in who we are becoming in every moment. We can learn to feel it more fully, to embrace how we are being shaped not into something or someone different, but into who and what we were made to be. We’re becoming more fully human: God is doing it (sometimes whether we want Him to or not!) and participating with Him in that work can be our vocation. Here’s what it takes: making a discipline of stillness rather than doing. Listening for Him with real openness and expectation. Participating in what He is doing in you, and in the world.”


REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. How has the discipline of being still been going for you over the last few weeks? When has it been easy? When has it been hard? How do you feel about continuing the practice moving forward?

  2. How has the discipline of listening with openness and expectation been going for you? What is comforting or reassuring about it when you try? What makes it frightening or difficult? Can you identify any of the roadblocks you’re experiencing? Would you be willing to share them?

  3. How would you articulate the difference between obedience and participation? Try to imagine God’s perspective: which might He prefer? Why?

  4. Kenny quoted the Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire, who said that it is our “ontological vocation [to] become more fully human.” What does this mean? Do you agree? (A quick reminder: ontology is “the study of the nature of being” and vocation is “work that aligns with your calling”). 

  5. What keeps us from “being fully human” already? 

  6. Look at the parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6-9. What is everyone’s role in the parable? What is the fig tree’s responsibility? What is its opportunity? How does the passage from Isaiah inform the parable?

  7. How did the woman in Kenny’s adoption story participate in what God was doing? What would it mean for you to participate more in your own story… or the stories of others?

Kenny Camacho