Gospeling Our Life ~ what is familiar

 

As we continue to think about how we will approach Scripture, notice that what I suggested on Monday and Tuesday, had more to do with holding Scripture a bit at a distance.  That is intentional.  Not every verse is going to warm the cockles of your heart.  Not every story will stir your soul.  There may be days you feel like an eagle soaring and days when the stories leave you feeling, “Meh”.  No matter what, I do believe God moves through Scripture.  Timothy says that all Scripture is God-breathed.  That means I am invited to inhale scripture, to let it rummage and roam around my life.  As I do, I need to honor that I am welcoming a guest, this story, into my heart.  Even if it is a story I’ve studied and heard hundreds of times, like the Good Samaritan, I am amazed how what is familiar can be fresh when I open my sacred imagination to what I am encountering.  Breathing in Scripture, honoring that I will never fully understand, but I stand under, try to learn, from the words.  This is where Scripture moves from being an artifact to study at arms-length, to a holy moment of Emmanuel, God with you, in that moment.  Here are a few questions to ask as you are reading. What more do I need to learn and understand about myself?  What is underneath my response?  What and why am I feeling?  To be sure, Scripture doesn’t just have a single message and meaning, Scripture meets us in the messiness of our life each time we open the pages.  We breathe in God’s wisdom that people of faith have shared for centuries and in turn the words start to re-form us, if we are willing.  I encourage you to ponder today: what are some favorite Bible passages?  Maybe the 23^rd Psalm or John 3.  Go and re-read those words afresh and anew, breathe in what you love and be open to how God’s love might be working in those words in your life today.  I pray you might discover and uncover God’s presence in the tiny words on razor thin paper not just today but throughout September and October.