What We Really Need (March)

March 2020 (1-28 March) see the Resource Pack PDF for full details including weekly subthemes and daily prompts and Bible readings. See the Discussion Group Questions PDF to see the material adapted for small groups.

What do you really need?

As we enter Lent — the time of reflection in the Christian calendar in the days before Easter — we are going to consider some of the basic needs we all share:

• breathing
• shelter
• thirst
• belonging

Life is so complicated until it isn’t — until it’s just about the next breath, something to drink, somewhere to stay, or a community to belong to. That gasp of air, that cold glass of water, that roof, that place you can simply be. We started this year by exploring the external world with our theme Making Sense of It All alive to our senses, and then switched gear to consider the inner world of quietness, silence and absence in A Quiet Life. Now as we continue Lent we will explore what happens when our inner needs meet the demands of the outside world.

This is the first part of a two theme sequence called 'Beginning to Flourish'. In Part 2 My Father, The Gardener, we will explore what it means to thrive as well as survive. But this month we want to start with the basics — contemplating the fundamental necessities for living.

What do we learn about our God from breathing deeply? Or from catching our breath? How about when we quench our thirst? Or when we feel safe? Or from when we lose that sense of security? As Jesus fasted in the desert wilderness, surely a dry and unforgiving place, these needs would have been on his mind. He was fully divine but yet — incredibly — also fully human. Jesus speaks with authority in our lives as one who knows what it is to fight for breath, to long for water, to be without a permanent address, to find oneself forsaken, betrayed and abandoned. But he also knows what it is to laugh, to drink in celebration, to share hospitality, and form lasting friendships.

What can we discover about our God and ourselves when we strip things down to the basics and consider our most fundamental needs?

See the Resource Pack PDF for more information including weekly subthemes and daily Bible readings and prompts. See the Discussion Group Questions PDF to see the material adapted for a small group context.