Training Circles

Sorry not to be "around" much. I keep thinking of this site for one set of thoughts, but God has been clear that there are interconnections where I don't see them at the time. So I should have been posting here more, perhaps, but not seeing the connections.

In this journey to restore my own heart, see others restore theirs, to find more specifics on my calling, one theme has continuously resurfaced -- church. A few months ago, I tried to walk away from thinking so much about church and how it impedes people from walking in their calling, and how it could help, just to go and act. To move toward what I thought was more my calling, to help others find theirs.

Wasn't sure exactly how that looks. If you saw The Mask of Zorro you may remember the scene with the training circles. The circle started out large, but as the new Zorro was gaining skill, the circles shrank. "This is your world" the old Zorro said. And each new circle represented his world shrinking.

As you journey into calling, discovering your calling is like that. You get a general idea, and act in that. As you learn and experience, the circle shrinks. It's like knowing you want to teach, and in walking in that the circle shrinks and you discover you want to teach adults, then it shrinks again and you find you want to teach young adults, then college students, then it's teaching literature, and on it goes until you discover you want to teach 19th century English literature to seniors in their final semester. The circles shrink as you discover yourself.

All that to say that I wonder if I forced my circle to shrink around the wrong center. After trying to move away from "church" (see some of my posts around August), I wonder if I should have moved more away from "institutions" and more toward community. One key on this was the last few weeks (the 'distraction' that took some time from blogging) is working with some friends on "Redemptive Tribe" (I put the link there for those reading this a few weeks from now, but for now I believe the settings are still "private" while we build some content). This is a collaboration site for those "friends of Ransomed Heart interested in redemptive community". I'll probably write more on some of the thoughts it has stirred as we seed the site.

Is all this God drawing me back in a circle with the center he knows is my deeper desire?

So, how was your Thanksgiving?