Well, here I am, January 3rd and I haven't finished the Bible or posted since August 13th. I am in the middle of Job and although I did not complete my last year's resolution to finish reading the bible in its entirety within one year, I feel that I have not failed in any way shape or form. I have spent the last year in 11 different countries (Canada, Ecuador, Peru, England, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Belgium, France and Spain) and carried the new-for-me spiritual practice of reading scripture throughout my travels. Some books were a tougher than others, some were read just in the nick of time. In the aftermath of Uganda I am reading Job; with all the questions and "demands to know" that have run riot in my heart since my arrival there, I think Job has a lot to teach me.
I have also come to realize that where I once would have believed God was silent or had forsaken, He is still there, just in ways that I would not have previously classified as "present". Reading scripture and pulling the meaning forward into my own daily experience has showed me that the subtle messages I get from God are often constant and perhaps this is why I could not see them before. As in Genesis 2:18-20, God gently shows me all of the "beasts" and "birds" in my nature, my life and the world as I know it until I can put a name to them and set them free. These subtle, and powerful, messages are undercurrents in my waking and prayer life; they are governing dynamics in my relationship to God.
Although I haven't posted for some time, the practice of this blog and of reading scripture for the purposes of growing in Christ and creating community have sustained me when a spiritual community is not physically present. Without every Sunday at St. Andrew's-Wesley, prayer partners, volunteering and the like, I have felt like I've been waving in the wind. This new-for-me practice has acted as a root to tether me in place, to keep me from being blown away all together. As we prepare for Epiphany, I am rejuvenated by the re-"discovery" of the indwelling Christ and the deepening of these roots for the year to come.
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