Sometimes the Holy Spirit moves like that

For the last year or so, I've been trying out a host of different books on the market for my daily devotions. It's been my way of saying that I am familiar with what's published in the marketplace as a person concerned about Christian formation. But just prior to the New Year, I started feeling the nudging of the Holy Spirit to go back to a daily pattern of Bible reading familiar to many Christians. For almost fifteen years, it was my practice to read through Psalms and Proverbs about once a month. It isn't really all that hard if you consider that there are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs and 150 chapters in the book of Psalms. That means that it is reasonable to read a chapter from Proverbs each day of the month and 5 chapters from Psalms. I say in about a month, because sometimes I would parcel out Psalm 119 into two or three day reads. But once I got to Psalm 150, the next day I would return to the beginning of the book and read through again. Proverbs is a little easier to keep track of if you read the chapter corresponding to the day's date. For instance, read Chapter 1 on the first day of the month and Chapter 2 on the 2nd, and so on - I am sure you get the idea.

Well, even though I felt the nudging of the Spirit for a few weeks, I didn't crack open Proverbs this month in obedience. Then, Sunday morning, the pastor introduced a sermon series on Proverbs and encouraged congregants to read through Proverbs with handy dandy study sheets she was providing in the worship bulletin. And even though I sensed the Holy Spirit was now spiritually smacking me in the head to me to get back into my former discipline of scripture reading, I still managed to slack off for a few days....the kids came for a sledding overnight, I wasn't feeling well, there was an ice storm, yadda, yadda, yadda. All kinds of excuses - until till last evening, when I finally sat down, opened up my devotional Bible and got to reading Proverbs 19. When I finished, I still felt a little like a slacker, because for me, my devotional reading best happens in the morning. I knew there were additional measures I needed to take.

So, this morning, instead of reading the little devo book I was working on before Advent interrupted me from finishing it, I opened up my Bible and went to Proverbs 20 and started reading and when I got to verse 5, it literally jumped off the page at me:

"Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water,
But a person of understanding will draw it out"

The verse spoke to me on a deep personal level about the studies I have been pursuing these past years, the dissertation I am hoping to be green lighted on this spring, the academic struggles and the lessons I have had to learn on the PhD level. It cut me to the core and I felt God's presence in a mighty breathtaking way.

Then, this afternoon, a friend of mine, JD Walt, the chaplain at Asbury Theological Seminary, reflected in his daily blog on the very same verse. His take was different than mine and you can read it here.

What is so profound to me this evening is the realization that reading Scripture for my daily devotional puts me back in the middle of a community of persons to whom I belong even though sometimes we don't share the same geography. That has been very hard with the devotional books I've been reading on my own with an eye towards 'reviewing' them. I've been isolated, ascending the very ivory tower I don't always want to occupy. I'm very determined that my one-day-done-dissertation will mean something to the church as much as it means to the academy. Reading Scripture, especially my old practice of Proverbs and Psalms, returns me squarely within the Body of Christ and connects me to the local community with whom I worship. It also has the serendipitous way of connecting me with friends who live more distantly. and offers me a greater perspective than I can get on my own. I love it when Bible reading and Sunday liturgy does that. It reminds me that I belong to something bigger than myself, the local congregation and even the United Methodist denomination. I am a part of God's church at work in the world and a witness to Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And being connected makes me far more effective than when I try to operate on my own - even in my devotional readings.

This is the season.....

"To everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under heaven"
Ecclesiastes 3:1

It's likely you've heard the song "Turn, Turn, Turn" by The Byrds recorded in the 1960s if you are not directly familiar with the Bible verse itself. For me, its a verse that reminds me of the time I lived and worked in North Carolina at St. James UMC. Eight years ago tomorrow, I began my position as Minister of Adult Discipleship there. I am incredibly thankful to God for that 3 year season of my life and I am grateful for the chance to go back occasionally and visit those special people that touched my life and opened my heart and mind to new and creative possibilities in my life and ministry. However, it wasn't a 'fun' season of my life. I was homesick in ways that I never experienced in Kentucky during the previous four years while I was at seminary. I often wondered what God was doing to have me live there and experience the culture of Down East Carolina all by myself. I did sense it was a 'season' though. Ecclesiastes 3:1 was ever present when I packed my boxes and life and moved into a little townhome. Longtime friends, Nancy and Larry gave me this little wall hanging as a present and I kept it up year round in my kitchen of the little townhome I occupied while I lived there.
Since moving away, I keep the wall hanging with my autumn decorations and I've been reflecting on its significance and all it represents to me since I pulled it out of its box this weekend. There's often much I leave unsaid in my daily posts. That's one reason they are daily posts I suppose! I knew I was an easy candidate to become a 'lapsed blogger' so I resolved to keep it short and simple and use a photograph to help tell the story. The blog has become something I didn't expect and I am not sorry I began it last February. Reflective blog entries like this one are few and far between and mostly when I write about friends, family and special events or meaningful mementos like this one - and even though you might not believe it - there is a great deal of 'backstory' I edit out.
The blog helps me in my writing and that is a good thing since I am pretty much launching the beginnings of writing the proposal for my doctoral dissertation. The nascent ideas have been birthed and the research and readings have nurtured my thoughts, prayers and energies into forming a thesis statement that my adviser approved and encouraged me to pursue last week on my campus visit to Virginia. I am grateful to my family members who unwaveringly support this crazy lifestyle of a mid-life grad student and the friends who unquestionably offer me the use of their homes for overnight stays or for study space or unselfishly give me time to chat and talk when we catch up by phone as I drive hundreds of miles for meetings. I am awed by a congregation that has helped support me in my educational endeavors just because I am a candidate for ordained ministry who comes out of the Greenville District in Eastern North Carolina! Believe me, I wish this season of perpetual waiting for graduation and ordination were over. But I really don't know to what 'great thing' or ministry opportunities lie beyond these goals that God is yet preparing me for. I just know the task before me is writing this dissertation, in which education for discipleship is the key component (notice any themes connected to my larger life here? It's a shame I have to have credible viable published research here or I could write the dissertation before the month is out!).
I am looking forward to the time beyond, with a vocation that allows me to live in my own place. I wonder if I will hang this banner next year here at The Homestead or somewhere else and realize I can't even guess. What I do know, is that for this season of my life, it is fabulous that Mom and Dad are willing to share a space for me here at The Homestead. I am glad to get hugs and overnights with my niece and nephew and spend time with my brother and sister-in-law just hanging out occasionally and not just at family events and or at the holidays. It is a good season of my life and I am glad it does offer me a little fun on the side as well.