50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

Please read Galatians 5:2-12.

Reflect and share with each other: where does your life feel like a race?

Copy and paste the following if you’d like to hear a live version of the song that inspired the title of the sermon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTiyLuZOs1A. How is this a picture of Christian life?

Ryan suggested that often the places we run to when we run away from God are places we feel we are doing great. What is the motivation behind going to these places? What do we think they will accomplish for us?

When/if we do run from God, what reasons or motivations does Paul give for coming back?

If the Galatians turn to circumcision, what else do they have to do? Why?

Copy and paste the following to see a video of the subway ad Ryan referred to in the sermon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emb71f-M2HY&feature=related. What significance did Ryan draw from this image? What does it mean for the Christian life?

The good news, Ryan said, is that our standing before God depends not on ourselves. This leads to _____ hope, as opposed to  ______________hope.

What does it mean, then, as Paul says, to eagerly wait? How do we sometimes lose sight of what is our highest vocation? Why?

Return to the opening reflection on running a race. Paul uses this imagery too. Why does he use it? What are the connotations and associations of running that Paul is drawing on? (Leisure, competition, exhaustion, drive, etc.?) How can we use this notion of running a race as we pursue our primary vocation? How does it change the way we view our vocation(s)?

Ryan said that we often schew one of two ways when we consider our vocation: What are those two ways, and how do these two camps often pursue each other?

How does turning to the cross remind us how we are to run this race? What motivation does it supply?