I haven't spoken much about it but I've struggled with something for several months now, a family thing, and at times, I've just been at a complete loss. I won't get into details here to protect their privacy but I'm having to really lean on God to help me make sense of things and to show me a way to help them, those that I LOVE dearly.
I use my commute to work (20 minutes or so) and home again as my quiet time with God. That's when I have complete silence and I can pray, I can cry, I can listen to K-Love and sing and talk to Jesus, just whatever I need to do at the time.
January 1st, I started a 365 Day Bible Plan to read the Bible this year. I've been a Christian since I was 14 but I have never read God's Word in its entirety. Of course, I've had extensive study of certain books and verses and I know the stories thanks to a childhood of Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and a lifetime of church services. But cover to cover? No. I got to thinking that it was about time. How can I help these that I love unless I know what I'm talking about? Right?
I use the YouVersion Bible on my phone for reading, studying and following along with the service at church. I discovered a couple of weeks ago that I can also LISTEN to it!
So now I'm listening to the Bible on my way to work and this week, I'm "reading" the book of Joshua. I have found a tremendous amount of peace since I've been listening to the Bible every day. I get so much more out of it than when I just read it. The narrator's voice is strong, deep and a tad bit British. It's comforting. I told Larry he sounds like how I imagine God to sound.
One of my favorite old hippie songs is "Put Your Hand In The Hand", recorded by the group Ocean in 1971.
I believe in Him. I love Him. He's real. He is NOT a fairy tale. He answers my prayers every. single. day. If you don't know Him, PLEASE come talk to me.
Put your hand in the hand of the man
Who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man
Who calmed the sea
Who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man
Who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself
And you can look at others differently
By puttin' your hand in the hand of the man
From Galilee
And you can look at others differently
By puttin' your hand in the hand of the man
From Galilee
I've changed a lot in my lifetime. I grew up believing in G-d - there was no other option in my mind. I had no proof, no tangible proof, but my grandmother was a very religious woman who would attribute many things to Him.
ReplyDeleteShe would thank Him when there were close calls (car accidents with no injuries, for example), and she would always invoke Him in her way of prayer. I should say she was observant, not religious, though all my grandparents grew up in very religious homes.
But when my older son was bar-mitzvahed, and we joined a synagogue for the first time in my adult life, I found what I had missed all this time. And while it wasn't religion, per se (I don't observe the Orthodox ways of abstaining from driving/using electrical appliances/phones on the Sabbath, for example), it was a deep connection to my spirituality that lifted me to a whole new level.
Going to synagogue on the Jewish High Holidays has become a high point of every year. Going in other times as well, but the High Holidays hold such significance for me as a person, as a Jew, that the rituals, the prayers, the ancient sound of the shofar (ram's horn) still send shivers of awe through me.
I was realistic enough, as I grew up, not to think it was possible to ask G-d for a materialistic thing and get it. But I also believed that if I asked for the things that mattered - health, happiness, success - He would answer one way or the other.
We may not worship the same G-d, but we are the same people, and we are all connected. I feel more connected to you guys than to many people I've met face-to-face, and much of that is grounded in our shared sense of spirituality.
Thank you for this post. You inspire me. I love you both.
(and I have an earworm from that song - I always loved it, whether it was Ocean, or Engelbert Humperdink who also recorded it, I believe)
XOXOXOXO
Ginger was that noisy little buzzing bee in my ear that kept His name alive in my world, though Jesus was a stranger to me. She may not quote the Word with her tongue, but she sure does speak it loudly in her acts of faith. LARRY
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