Learning from life

This blog is bi-lingual; it has a twin in Spanish. Most of the time I write in English and translate to Spanish (Yes Google is a part of it *blush*) But this time I did the other way around because I wanted to describe a tool we’re using in our work. It’s called the Circle, and is a part of the Lifeshapes developed in an Anglican church in England and now spread over the world. More info on www.weare3d.com.

There are excellent summaries of the Circle on-line so I’ll be brief. It’s basically a learning circle, like Kolb’s, which has been cross-pollinated with the notion of discipleship in the teaching of Jesus. A disciple was of course a learner, and the Circle is a tool to keep us learning from the things that happens in our life.

The process has two sides; I often use the parable of the two houses in Matt 7 to illustrate them. One person hears the message of Jesus and acts on it, and gets a stable life; another hears but does not act and have fragile life, basically. One side is called Repentance, because it’s most often about changing direction or thinking. The basic question on this side is “What is God saying to me thru this?” 

The first side has three steps: Observe, which basically means realizing that something special happened; Reflect where we ask what this means for me, pray, think and listen; and the third, Discuss, where we check what others can contribute with.

When we feel like we sense what’s the message we can move over to the left side where the first step is Plan. We need something concrete to do as a response. Easy and preferably just one thing. Because we so easily fool ourselves we need to make ourselves accountable to someone that can ask us the question “How’s it going?” And finally, the cruncher, Act. To do what we planned.

If we go through the whole Circle our lives will change a little according to will of God. If we do it regularly it will change a lot :-)

We realize that to keep the dynamic part of our relationship to God we need to keep on learning, changing and listening. The Circle helps us with that. Nothing new really, just an easy form. It actually coincides with the first chapters in the material we already use for new Christians.