What if God designed diversity not as a problem to solve but as a strength to harness? What if God designed you to need the people who are nothing like you?

The ______________ ________________ you experience in your relationships, your church, your workplace is intentional.

Every single day you make _______________ about what's normal, what's right, what's obvious.

1. Usual Behaviours: How you naturally show up.

Are you direct or diplomatic?
Do you prefer structure or flexibility?
Do you focus on tasks or relationships?
Do you need time alone to recharge or gain energy from people?

2. Underlying Needs: What you need from others and your environment to function at your best.

You might behave independently but need affirmation and support.
You might appear easygoing but need clear expectations and structure.
When your needs often differ from your usual behaviours, and this gap creates tension.

3. Stress Behaviours. How you show up when your needs aren't met.
Your usual strengths become distorted.

The person who's normally thoughtful becomes paralyzed by overthinking.
The person who's normally decisive becomes controlling.

4. Interests: What energizes and motivates you.

Some people come alive with numbers and data.
Others thrive on creative expression.
Some love working with their hands.
Others prefer working with ideas.

When you start to understand these four areas, you stop assuming your way is the universal way. You recognize what feels obvious to you is foreign to someone else. What energizes you drains someone else. What you need from others differs from what they need from you.

The stretch is where ______________ happens.
The tension is where ______________ develops.
The ________________ between you and someone else, creates the ____________________ for something neither of you possess alone.

You move from _______________ to __________________.

You move from _______________ to __________________.

You move from _______________ to __________________.

Some questions to keep the conversation going.

Check In:
1. Spend some time sharing about your past week.
2. What part of the message challenged your thinking about the people who frustrate you most?
3. When have you experienced tension with someone because you approached a problem or decision differently? What happened?
4. Where do you see yourself on the GRIP Birkman map (Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow)? How does your style show up in your relationships?
5. Think about someone in your life who stretches the elastic. What strength do they bring that you lack?
6. Paul says the parts that seem weaker are indispensable. Who have you dismissed or undervalued because they operate differently than you?
7. What blind spots do your natural tendencies create? How have different people helped you see what you miss?
8. Describe a time when someone far from you on the grid saved you from a mistake or helped you succeed in a way you couldn't on your own.
9. How do you typically respond when your needs aren't met? What does your stress behavior look like?
10. Pick one relationship under tension right now. What's one practical step you could take this week to move from judgment to curiosity with that person?

Prayer
Spend some time praying together as you wrap up.