Dan Notti
Teacher, speaker, entrepreneur and follower of Christ; with a passion to be a catalyst for authentic community.
"...love like you have never been hurt..."
My wife has the following quote by Mark Twain hanging on our refrigerator.
Sing like no one is listening,
love like you have never been hurt,
dance like nobody's watching,
and live like it's heaven on earth.
I have to admit that I must have walked by it a thousand times without really taking . . .
You are competent!
Is professionalism crippling authentic community?
Personally I am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are rich in goodness, amply filled with all [spiritual] knowledge and competent to admonish and counsel and instruct one another also. Romans 15:14 AMP
Gardeners, pool cleaners, housekeepers, nannys, dog groomers, and a host of other jobs that used to be . . .
Walking in Love
And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:2
I want to suggest a couple of things about what it means to walk in love. To walk in love is to:
Seek God for Himself Alone
It is unfortunate, but many times . . .
"...as the Lord has forgiven you..."
Authentic community is a messy place!
As we experiment with what it means to be open, genuine, and vulnerable with one another, we will invariably screw up. We will offend one another or have a complaint or grievance with one another and not know how to graciously resolve it. (I am assuming here that there will be some attempt made . . .
Thank you Daddy
Reminiscing on a magical moment.
It's late, I've had a hard day and all I'm interested in is dropping face first into the sweet, soft refuge of my bed...when I hear a little knock at the bedroom door. Like Lazarus being recalled from the tomb, I desperately try and recover my faculties from the brink of oblivion and manage to mumble, "Who's there?"
. . .How do we ever find our way into anything authentic?
The simple answer is pain...
I am not by nature a very relational person. I have always envied people who dive in with both feet and seem to be immediately immersed in something. The ones that seem to effortlessly connect and feel a sense of profound belonging. I long for the connection and completeness they seem to have. I have . . .
Trusting God for it...Part 3
As I have loved you.
One final thought on trusting God for what He says is possible in light of authentic community.
3. We are to have divine love for one another.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.' John 13:34
The beautiful thing here is that . . .
