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.
When I lived in North Carolina and the car I had bought out of college was tiring of being driven (it had over 320,000 miles on it) I bought a friend out of her leased vehicle. It seemed like the perfect solution at the time for both of us. I wasn't in the headache of car shopping and she was ready to return to her Michigan roots and buy a Mustang in celebration of completing her master's degree at Duke. (Somehow I've missed out on celebrating the completion of my two masters degrees by buying a car to commemorate the milestones in my education - but that's getting away from the story.) The Honda has served me well and its been a smart buy - until I moved back to NJ a few years later to earn my 2nd masters at Princeton Seminary. By mid-November, I discovered on the 30+ minute commute the drawback to having leather seats - they are cold!! and a long ride in the morning can bring a chill that lasts throughout the day. The problem was solved that year at Christmas when Santa delivered sheepskin seat covers. They are wonderful regardless of the season. But this winter, either the sheepskin is getting a little worn or age is settling in for me, because I'm beginning to dream about my next car and the heated seats it will have. But being a perpetual student working on her third graduate degree, I am not in the market for a vehicle with said heated seats anytime soon. A little ingenuity was necessary if I am going to make it through the winter.....
And a solution was found - in the form of the rice/rye filled sacks often used for tired and aching sore muscles. In my case, I heat up the pad in the microwave as I dash outside to start the car to let the vehicle warm up for a few minutes on days when the thermometer's mercury plunges to icy levels.
Then, when the car is warmed up and when I am ready to head out, I remove the pad from the microwave and arrange it just so on the seat. This tartan rice/rye blanket is long enough that when I sit down, I have an extra little flap that can be tucked up between the seat and the lumbar region of my spine. Nice and toasty for luxury driving on my morning commute - and best part is that I can heat it up in the microwave for the ride home in the evening. Not every girl has custom manually removable heated seats - and I bet you won't find this option on just any car on the sales floor of your local dealership!
There is one upside to single digit temperatures....
Within 15 minutes, the temperature has doubled!
