Yesterday I wrote a little bit about the importance of a
personal liturgy. Today I am going to
turn to the importance of a common one, the importance of connecting deeply
with community.
Spiritual disciplines matter. Spiritual disciplines matter to me. Spiritual disciplines matter, a lot. If I'm honest, though, I have to say that as
I began to learn about the many disciplines that are sometimes obscured by the
only ones that seem to get much recognition in most Christian circles
(Scripture and prayer), I have gone through a time in which Scripture has often
taken the backseat. It's not that I
haven't cared, deeply, about what Scripture has to say, but I think this is
actually a familiar struggle for ministers of all kinds. We are often so intensely entrenched in the
study of Scripture for the purposes of preparing sermons or writing papers that
it becomes easy to forget to read transformatively. We know the Scripture. We believe the Scripture. We have the Scripture memorized to such an
extent that when we see a reference or hear the beginning of a passage, we can
quickly rattle off the text without thinking about it too hard, and we can
easily direct others to relevant passages for their struggles and joys. All of these things are good. But we must not forget how applicable
Scripture is to our own lives, to our own spiritual formation.
Um... I think I might
have forgotten...
So two days into this new year, with an amazing liturgical
day planner resource, Sacred Ordinary
Days, I found myself just a little bit overwhelmed when it occurred to me
that so many people are reading the same texts, today. I have seen multiple references to the
feeding of the 5,000. My modus operandi
is to look at this passage and to think to myself, "Oh yes... I know that one... and then those stupid
disciples get all freaked out about the feeding of the 4,000 just a little
while later..." Today, though, I
took time to consider how this passage points to God's ability in the midst of
my own inability. Another blog, found
here,
was helpful to me as I worked through this passage.
I'm not all that unlike those disciples, either. Somehow, it seems that even though I know God
does amazing things, I have a hard time when the circumstances seem impossible.
I feel like the recurring themes in my life, right now, are
peace and presence. There is something
amazingly powerful about exploring these themes in community. And so, as I find myself in a season of
waiting (and I am not good at waiting), these verses resonated most:
Psalm 33:20-22 "We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our
help and our shield. In him our hearts
rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in
you" (NIV).
And...
Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and
saves those who are crushed in spirit" (NIV).
May there be peace as we wait, together, knowing there is
hope, knowing God is close, knowing that God has done, and will continue to do,
things thought impossible, even when our memory is short.
L.
Excited to hear someone else I know is using Sacred Ordinary Days
ReplyDeleteExcited to hear someone else I know is using Sacred Ordinary Days
ReplyDeleteWe're really excited about it! Did you join the FB group?
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