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 Nooma 018: Name

Notes:
We will show the Nooma 018 DVD first (click here for promo to see what it's like)
I have put loads of questions below so that you can think what might be best for your group - you wouldn't be able to get through them all. Focus is on trying to see through the image our youth have to whats at their core and to open them up and help them to see what their identity has been based on and whether this is what God wants for them.

I would advise spending 15 mins researching on the net what the names of your group members mean as it will be a good starter for question 1 and help the discussion flow.

Questions:

1. What does your name mean? Do you think this is any reflection of who you are?
“You and I have pasts, families we come from, things we’ve done, mistakes we’ve made, and where we’ve been and what we’ve done has shaped us into who we are today. So we have to embrace our story, our history. You don’t have to be proud of it, but you must claim it because it’s yours.”

2. What have been some of the key people or events, good or bad, in your life that have shaped who you are in some way? It what way did those things shape you?
“We have limits. There are all sorts of things we aren’t. There are all kinds of people that we aren’t. Maybe this is why Jesus says to love your neighbour as yourself. How could I ever love and embrace someone else when I’ve never come to terms with who I am and then who I’m not?”

3. What are some of your limits?
“We each have this unique path, a calling, a life that God has given us; and Jesus invites us to be our true selves and yet we get sidetracked, we get distracted, we get hung up on how we’re different from her or we aren’t like him and we end up asking the wrong questions.”

4. What do you find yourself getting jealous of in other people; in what ways do you wish you were someone else? (e.g. rich, pretty, tall, sporty, musical, extroverted, confident, good speaker, intelligent, live in good part of town, …)
5. Do you think these things would help you better be whatever it is that God has called you to be or to do?
6. Can you think of anyone that you know, personally or maybe that’s famous, that didn’t have everything, or that wasn’t who they wanted to be, yet that has ended up doing awesome things?

Example 1: A young man was described as being shy and awkward. He was brought up in Taukau and quit school to work with his dad.
- Who was he?
- Do you think that from a young age Sir Edmond Hillary would have wished that he was more confident, less of a loner and better able to talk with the ladies?
- Could being those things in fact have actually gotten in the way of who he later became?

Example 2: What about Bono from U2?
- He had a stiff sibling rivalry, his mum died during high school and he became a rebel during his teenage years
- He play chess and was a bellringer – basically he was the most un-cool guy out at school

7. Do you think you could live in a way where you’re not comparing yourself to people who have more than you, who look different than you, or who can do things you can’t? - Do you think you can ever fully be you if you don’t?

Proverbs 14:30 “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”

Or another goodie: Job 5:2 “Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple”
“Some people live their whole lives according to the expectations of others. Whether it’s authority figures or family members, it’s as if there’s this script that has already been written by someone else and all they’re essentially doing is just acting it out.”

8. Are there things in your life that you do because it’s expected of you? What are they and where have those expectations come from? Are they getting in the way of doing what you really feel you should be doing?
“We need to be saved from all the times we have’t been our true selves. All the times we’ve tried to be someone else. All of the lies we’ve believed about who God made when God made us. All the times we’ve asked the wrong questions; ‘What about him? What about her? What about them?’ And we’ve missed the voice of Jesus saying, ‘You, follow me.’”

May you do the hard work of the soul to discover your true self. May you find your unique path, the one God has for you. And in the process, may you find yourself comfortable in your own skin.