[Note: This series originally started as a project on Reddit. You can find an explanation of what Bible Study is all about here.]
Happy Sunday! It is a chilly Sunday sermon today as both Bobby and I are stuck in below freezing temperatures, so everything is running a little slower, including, possibly, our thoughts. As we continue exploring Seonghwa's page, we will try to go deeper this week and each build a sermon off of a line that speaks to us in the text.
04: sacred practice
Bobby: Okay. Back and ready
GD: "What can I do?" or "There is no way"
I think I can build a sermon off of either
Bobby: Okay. I am going in a different direction entirely I think
GD: Excellent
I'm going with what can I do
I think there's a different version of the sermon where you say to proactively ask 'what can I do' when you see someone else struggling or in need. But that's honestly not where my head/heart is right now. I want to talk more about the helpless feeling... like, when you know the answer to the question is basically nothing. I think I have felt, and do feel, like that often. For me, it's usually more of 'what more can I do?' Like I've done all the things, and this is what we're left with, and now 'what can I do?'
And I suppose the end of the sermon, or the actual lesson, I would draw, is that what I can do is what ATEEZ does, which is just keep going. Sometimes that's all there really is. Through the hard times and the suffering, if you just keep going, there will be joy and good moments too. And for me personally, I want to stop asking what more can I do, because there's nothing. All I can do is what I can do, and sometimes all I can do is just keep going.
feels like my sermon is a bit of a bummer? But I didn't mean it that way.
Bobby: No, because there's peace in letting go of what you can't control
I had an unintentionally long conversation with my principal last week. My school is a private college prep very advanced academics sort of school. And the 8th grade class is really struggling with reading comprehension and that affects all other areas of English as well as other classes of course
I had more kids fail my midterm than I've ever had before even though we reviewed together for a week and a half and I've given them so many resources to help them outside of class. And so I had more kids fail the first semester than I've ever had before
GD: That sound very frustrating as a former teacher
Bobby: My principal and I were talking about this and I said that it was better for them to fail now and wake up than for them to fail in high school. But also that letting kids fail was a thing I had to learn how to do
Because there's only so much I can do as the teacher. I can prepare the lessons and share the resources and manage the class and do everything you're supposed to do--but if the kids don't do their part, then what else CAN I do?
GD: Right
Bobby: My point being that when you know you've done everything you can and things still aren't going as they should, then there is obviously frustration but there is also peace. It would be one thing if kids were failing because I wasn't doing my job properly. But that's not the case here
And I think it's the same for circumstances that are simply beyond our control
GD: I have recently started saying 'let go and let god', which is a little funny since I'm not actually religious, but it makes me think about this sermon
Some things.. you just have to let go. I can't help that 3 people think I'm some demented serial fan caller any more than I can help that the people who are selling my parents this house don't want to work with us
I've done all the right things, and that's really all that can be done. Gotta let it go.
Which is an ateez song
Fever
I would close my sermon with fever
Bobby: The line I picked is "Hongjoong began to speak about his decision."
One of the things that we've been sort of tracking is Hongjoong's evolution into a strong leader. What I would want to discuss is how Hongjoong was pretty much thrust into this position by being the one that Halajoong delivers the cromer to. But that isn't enough to establish him as a good leader. Really, we don't see a lot of examples of him actively leading in the way we think of it, but here we see that in a moment of crisis (much like the first moment of crisis where he tricks the guardians with the glass) that the other members seem to naturally look to him for decisions. Seonghwa things "what should I do?" but when it comes down to it, it's Hongjoong who makes the decision and everyone accepts it.
We had a PD at the beginning of the year talking about developing leadership in students--because I have to make everything about school I guess--and the guy was talking about different kids of leaders. There are the ones who naturally stand up and want to take the lead. But there are those who, if given the space and support, can develop into good leaders. And I think that Hongjoong is the latter. He wasn't seeking to be in charge but the way the others seem to naturally trust him puts him in that position. And here he shows us that he deserves the position--as he realizes that it would be wrong to sacrifice one of them and split up the group.
GD: I also really like the word "speak" in the sentence. I don't know if they mean it how it feels... but this idea that a leader says what the decision is so that the team is on the same page feels vaguely Important to me
Bobby: Yes. The plan can't work if everyone's doing their own thing
GD: I feel like I've had a lot of leaders who always miss that step. They decide the plan, and then they tell some people, and then those people... don't necessarily tell the other people.
That was always a big problem at my school.
The principal was really close to the department heads and the leadership team, so they would make these huge school altering decisions, and then he'd task the leadership team to take it back to the teachers.. and some would.. some wouldn't
Bobby: Yes. Super frustrating.
GD: Even just in the pt 3 diary, I feel we've seen a lot of growth in Hongjoong's leadership?
But I may be mixing it with part 2
Bobby: We see it in both I think
The diaries aren't trying to call attention to it I think
We just get little glimpses
We could maybe argue that because Yeosang doesn't stick with the plan he makes everything worse
And I'm wondering if that broken cromer is in fact coming back to haunt us
GD: I think maybe
About the broken cromer
They made such a big point of it in Pt.3
05: connections and takeaways (previously mental murder board)
[Editor’s Note: We skipped this entirely.]
06: closing
Bobby: Prayer for Seonghwa?
GD: My prayer for Seonghwa is that he becomes more confident in his self and his abilities
it's not that I think he should've acted differently here, just that he seems really overwhelmed
Bobby: Perhaps part of his growth is learning he doesn't need to handle everything on his own
As he is part of a team
I have a hymn suggestion
A bit on the nose maybe
Emergency?
GD: Nice
I think it’s perfect
I also like Seonghwa’s part in the song
Is the last bit our own patron saints?
Bobby: Yes then rosary
The universe has told me I must pick Mingi
Unclear why
GD: What if I need big boss Eden again? Does it lessen his power if I invoke him too often?
Bobby: Impossible
GD: Okay an Eden and Mingi week
Twitter would hate us
Bobby: If we start hating each other suddenly then maybe we'll know twitter was right
Consider it an experiment
GD: Dangerous
And now our rosary 📿
8 makes
Bobby: 1 team
GD: Be the light
Bobby: Halazia
And that's it! It's a shorter bible study this week as we conserve our energy to help us stay warm. Let us know what line you'd pick for your sermon or what part's of Seonghwa's page sticks out to you!
Until next week.
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