There was a time in my life when I spent at least an hour every day reading my Bible. Beyond this, once a week, on Saturday mornings, I would head to the coffee shop with friends for the entire morning, in order to meditate on God’s word, journal about life, pray, and memorize passages. These practices helped me a lot. Because of all the time I spent familiarizing myself with the Bible, when I went on a run, walked around campus, encountered a tough situation I was usually able to find words of comfort and hope.
To be honest, I don’t spend the same amount of time reading my Bible. I think, for a while, I was afraid of many passages that seemed to be lifeless, hopeless and comfortless. In addition, I ceased to believe that God’s word was restricted to the written documents we call the Bible. Now as I have learned to read the Bible through new lenses, I have begun to find solace in this ancient text again.
The Psalmist in 119 conveys over and over again (22 times, using each letter in the Hebrew alphabet to make the point), that God’s word is the light that guides him/her, the treasure of his/her heart, the thing that consume his/her longs, etc.
As I think about my transition, I am inclined to ask myself: What are the words that will be my comfort? What are the words that I am longing for? What are the words that I will mediate upon?
There are certainly a lot of words to choose from: words of the mainstream media (Every morning, I watch Morning Joe and hear about the woes of the world), words of political leaders (Each day, I read articles and listen to pundits talk about the inability for political leaders to find common ground), words of social norms and pressures (words from DIY network telling me I need to spend more money and time on my house), words of institutions (by-laws and ordinances of the government or the church telling me how to act), organic words of the people (status updates and e-mails galore), etc.
Perhaps it is time for me, like the Psalmist, to spend more time looking at God’s word, again. If you are interested, I invite you to join me…
