Mad Libs Psalms

 

As a child, I loved Mad Libs (ok, full confession ~ I still love them).  If you are not familiar with this best creation since sliced bread, I apologize.  But you are in luck because I am about to introduce you to a game that will reshape your whole life (too much hype, you think?).  Mad Libs is an interactive story where you, the reader, get to fill in a character, verb, adjective, or body part to help write the story.  Imagine you are reading a sentence, when suddenly, a blank line appears, and you need to fill in a word from your sacred imagination.  Sounds awesome, right?  Let me give you an example from the often-imitated, never-duplicated Psalm 23.

 

The Lord is my ________ (you need to fill in an adjective).

 

From Sunday School, you learned the “correct” word is “Shepherd”.  But you don’t need to be confined and contained by that one word.  Perhaps you would also like to replace the words “The Lord”.

 

Perhaps, you would prefer the opening line is, “My God is the Composer and Conductor of life.”

 

Let me acknowledge that you might feel some resistance.  “I can’t change the Bible, Wes!!  There might be a lightning bolt with my name on it!!”  I believe in God’s steadfast love, which we have heard time and again in the Psalms over the last few weeks.  I believe God is a Creator, Artist, Benevolent, Dynamic, Empowering, and Inspiring part of life.  God loves to collaborate creatively with us.  God loves to play alongside our thoughts, like an improv group feeding off one another.  This week, I want to invite us to let loose, to pray the Psalms and create our own.  First, we will do this Mad-Lib style, taking a familiar Psalm and filling in new words.  Second, toward the end of the week, we will seek to let loose our own inner poet to write our own Psalms, prayers, and praise of God.  If you need a bit of inspiration, you can go read the Psalm of the day in the Voice Version or the Message Translation of the Bible, where both playfully reword the Psalms for today.  Let’s start with the 23^rd Psalm.

 

My God is my _________ (adjective).

 

I shall not ________ (if God is God, how does that transform your life?  Or maybe you want to rewrite in the positive ~ I shall _____.  For example, “My God is my Composer and Conductor, I shall keep on singing!”)

 

God invites me to ________________ (where does your soul feel alive?) and

 

_______________ (what do you do when you are at that location/destination?)

 

God ___________ (verb) my soul.

 

God leads me ______________ (place) because _______________ (why do you think you encounter the Eternal there?)

Even when, __________________ (emotion), I _______________ (what do you seek prayerfully instead?)

 

For God is with me, God’s _______________ (thing) and _____________ (thing/feeling) they comfort me.

 

God prepares ______________ (how does God show up), in the presence of my ____________ (who else might be there?)

 

God ___________ (verb) in my life; and I __________________________ (what response or reaction do you have.

 

Surely, ________________________ (if all the above is true, what is the conclusion you have?)

 

And I will _______________________ (how do you prayerfully live with God today because of what you have created together?)

 

Amen.