contentment

Discussion Questions 29 March 2025

in Discussion Questions  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

Discussion Questions 29 March 2025 “In My Father’s Garden”

These questions are a starting point to help spark discussion that digs deeper into today’s topic – feel free to adapt or add additional questions of your own.   

  1. If you were a plant, what kind of plant would you be? And would you be thriving in a well watered garden? Or struggling to flower in a desert right now?
  2. What does it mean to you to feel content? What is the opposite of contentment?
  3. When was the last time you truly felt contentment? Where did it come from? How long did it last?
  4. Hebrews 13:5,6 says “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’” What does this verse teach us about contentment?
  5. What is in your heart right now that you are yearning for? That you are convinced you won’t be happy without?
  6. John 4:13,14 Jesus said to a woman at at well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” What does it look like to drink the water Jesus gives?
  7. What is one habit or practice you can start this week to help you find contentment in Christ rather than in temporary things?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and being involved in today’s discussion!

by: Jinha Kim

"But those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14

Weathering the (Melbourne) Weather

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

I don’t like being cold.

So when we went to Mt. Buller a few weeks ago on a mini-getaway, while Roy taught Micah how to ski I was pretty miserable.

The wind blew the snow into our faces and Joshua and I decided to find shelter indoors.

Even though it’s September the weather in Melbourne is still dismally cold and rainy.  It’s enough to make optimists wonder, “Will spring come again?”

We Melbournians like to joke that there are four seasons in one day in Melbourne – but as far as I can tell these days, it’s just winter.

It’s amazing to me that someone looked at all the snow and cold and thought, “Hey, let’s make a game out of this!” and invented skis … and ice skates … and snowboards … and toboggans (my new favourite word – so much cooler than “sled”) – so that they could stay out in the cold even longer and enjoy the frigid temperatures.

I guess when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and when life gives you winter, you make … winter sports.

It reminds me of a children’s rhyme:

Whether the weather be cold,

Or whether the weather be hot.

We’ll weather the weather,

Whatever the weather,

We’ll weather it,

Like it or not!

It also reminds me of Paul, the convert to Christianity who became its greatest advocate – he truly received every circumstance and made the most of it; he sang when he was imprisoned (Acts 16:25) and he gave thanks when he was weak, sick, insulted, distressed (2 Corinthians 12:10).

He said, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Not all of us are like Paul – some of us don’t want to speed downhill on treacherously slippery snow to our deaths strapped onto what look like torture devices and actually pay someone a lot of money to do so.  Some of us don’t want to praise when we’re sick or hurting.

But perhaps we can toboggan on a gentle slope and actually enjoy it.  Or pray through the difficulty and find peace.  Or cry with a friend and actually feel better through the shared vulnerability and rawness.  

So while I’d still like the weather to be continuously fine, at least there are ways to weather the seasons of life – through connecting with God and others, we may even learn to be content.

by: Jinha Kim

"But those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14