For the better, we are able to cross time zones, travel to faraway places, get information at a moment’s notice and stay connected with friends and family. And, thankfully, some debilitating cultural expectations/boundaries are going by the wayside as well (prohibitions against interracial marriage, abusive power dynamics, to name a couple).

For the worse, though, as a result of boundaryless living, we can feel like we are never able to rest, we always have to be available, we access less than healthy or reliable information, and can perpetually exist with thin relationships as we “side-eye” deep commitment of any kind.

Along with all of this, and perhaps worst of all, our stream of consciousness living threatens to erode any meaningful, lasting spiritual development in our lives as well.

Pete Scazerro, author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, sums up our modern dilemma succinctly:

“…our present spiritual practices are not enough to keep us afloat in the ocean of the beast, the Babylon of our twenty-first-century world. Fighting against such a strong current, without the anchor of [spiritually formative practices], is almost impossible. Eventually, we find ourselves unfocused, distracted and adrift spiritually.”

What can help?

Beginning this Sunday at Mosaic Church, we will be deep diving into a series of three cascading truths:

a.) the incredible claim made by Jesus Christ that he came to bring us abundant life, even in the midst of our spiking cultural anxiety and fragmentation

b.) that living as best we can–given the resources we have–the life Jesus lived is the best way to tap into that promise

c.) the abundant life He lived was marked by specific rhythms and practices, and therefore, as the greatest of all humans, Jesus aimed us towards embracing those same rhythms and practices as well

As Christian philosopher Dr. Dallas Willard put it in The Spirit of the Disciplines, “…we can become like Christ by doing one thing—by following Him in the overall life He chose for Himself.”

How can we do that? What prevents us from doing that? How can we break through to a life consistently marked by a Gospel-centered abundance of strength, health and vitality?

That’s what we will be looking at for the next six weeks in a series called “Zoe: Embracing the Abundant Life”, and I hope you will join us each week.

You should know that at Mosaic, we care deeply about your personal spiritual formation as we seek to collectively walk with one another.

I can’t wait to begin this encouraging and shaping process with you.

Morgan

P.S. As you might imagine, we are tracking the tragic and developing crisis in Turkey and Syria; we will have a moment on Sunday both to pray and respond.

P.P.S. We are excited to see you on Sunday, and you may have noticed that our 11 am service at Mosaic North has been rather full the past few weeks (extending to the overflow room). If you are able, please help make space for others by attending the 12:30 pm service.