The Message

I don't know about all of you folks out there raised in the CRC tradition, but we all know that the New International Version of the Bible is the one and only, holiest translation there is.  Certainly those of us who went to faith-based university or bible college and bought the necessary hard-cover study edition and skipped along happily to introductory religion and theology classes have been thus indoctrinated.

I sound like I'm mocking.  But I am not.  It is my favourite.  And you Christians out there know that you have your fave too!  I actually seem to only be able to memorize, remember or find verses in the NIV language.

So much I love it that I can't seem to learn from it any more.  I speed read over the lovely, familiar prose and poetry and remember the many other times I have heard or read that verse, in that wording.

Lately I have been trying to get back into the Word, because I heard that is the right thing to do.  Last year I tried to follow my local church's challenge to read through the Bible in a year.  I have actually done that once before.  Yes.  Mostly just to say that I have.  And some days it was amazing.  More days it was kind of a chore. 

Last year I got stuck around this time in February.   It's hard to describe, but for some reason I was having trouble with how God is written about in the Old Testament.  Possibly that might have been a gateway for me and God to get into an old-fashioned arm wrestle and figure each other out on a deeper and more profound level.  Instead, I just stopped.  I didn't stop believing, but I did let little niggles of confusion and doubt become my excuse for mildly stepping away from the devotional stuff.

A few weeks ago I was asked by a student to help out with a young adult women's conference at my college.  On a Saturday.  In most situations I am very hard pressed to want to return to my workplace for any reason outside of my nine-to-five, but for some reason I agreed to volunteer my time.

Did I mention that I never return during non-work hours?

I listened to the speaker who addressed a lot of issues about fear and belonging.  Then I took my smallish group of young women to a classroom and led in some questions.  I was surprised by what happened.  All of these young, healthy, educated Christians expressed that they were paralyzed and stifled by fear.

Really?

Did they not know that they are fantastic creations?  That they have the power of the living God at their disposal?  That God actually has plans for their lives that will come to fruition?  That he dances with joy over them?  That they are forgiven?

Fear?  I tried to challenge them about this, but they sat passively and admitted that fear is the problem.  I don't know.  For me, laziness is a bigger issue.  Apathy.  Issues with authority.  A mocking spirit.  Lack of generosity.  Anger.  Unforgiveness.  Sin.  Not really fear.

But, I digress.

I felt that this Saturday afternoon was a bit of a wake up call for me.  Come back.  Try again.  I would't say that I have experienced an immediate and enormous break through.  There is no writing on the wall, and if there was I wouldn't be able to interpret the ancient language.  I don't know if God will honour my feeble attempts to cast my eyes from my own feet.  I don't know what is to come. 

But I am praying again.  I feel a little more joy that seems to have come from outside of me.  I smile more.  I am more present in the moment.  I am planning for some time away at a worship conference.  I try to be more gracious with the people I see every day.

And more days that not, I am finding that spending a few moments to myself with a journal and two versions of the Bible is possible.  Two versions, because obviously I have to have the NIV handy to remember what that verse in The Message is actually saying.  I am finding that the whole house doesn't crash down around me if I disappear or if I take this time. 

So, even though I usually write about fun, light stuff, I might occasionally take a moment to share some of this stuff.  It would be a legacy that I wouldn't mind my daughters stumbling upon in the midst of the other tom-stoogery that I usually write about which is our daily routine.

Tonight, I read a verse so so familiar:

Mark 12: 28-30   NIV
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

Mmmm, yes.  Delicious list of how to live a solid Christian life.  The type A in me loves lists!  Check, did that today.  Forgetting what all is.

Mark 12: 28-30  The Message
One of the religion scholars came up.  Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?"
Jesus said, "The first in importance is, "Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy."

Now, that list sounds a little different.  The same, but delightfully different.  What would it look like for me to spend all my passion to love God?   LOVE him with my prayer.  Find a way to use my intelligence to Love him?  Energy and not strength.  And the word "so".  The fact that the Lord God is one is the reason why we should be compelled to respond in love.

Numming away on the delicious translation.


Now, just because I spent a long time sharing and sermonizing, does not mean that when you see me in my regular day I will be exuding my halo of peace and perfection.  I will likely roll my eyes at dumb people still, but maybe will try to remember that someone, because God is infinitely better than me he loves them.  I probably won't lend you a thousand dollars out of the generosity of my heart.  I might even be currently drinking some leftover slushie from a previous party which may or may not have some 'spirits' in it.   I don't know, but I do think that letting myself share about this journey will help me and maybe encourage some of y'all.