This picture represents my soul today. I am full of joy. I am content. My thoughts and eyes are heavenword. My mind is focused on God. And all of this makes me more cool than in pictures where I pose, where I am aware and bound by my perceptions of how people see me. And now I am done justifying my vain desire to put this awesome picture Eduardo took of me on the web....0.jpg)
At Joey's request I re-committed to having devotional times each day. My tentative structure is real praying and some Bible in the morning, and more real prayer at night. I did this on the one hand begrudgingly because it seemed to me that there was no direct correlation between the rest of my life and whether or not I was in God's word, and on the other hand with thanksgiving in my heart that someone finally stepped in and gave me an exhortation I could somehow ignore when it came from myself. It is ridiculous how much of a difference it makes. I challenge you: try reading half of an epistle, or two or three gospel chapters, or a solid psalm, per day. After only a few days, I feel like my twelve year old self, amazed for the first time at how much joy the Gospel can generate within my soul and wondering how anything can be this real and how I never noticed the difference before. I know you can't be high all the time, or being high wouldn't be being high--but I thank God for the high's that sustain us through the lows. Have you ever read 1 Corinthians? Not just chapter 13, I mean the whole thing. It's incredible! The nuances, the themes, the overall message: at every level Paul screams "Jesus!". And at every level, wherever you are and whatever you need, it is the Living Word of the Living Water nourishing our spirit. Cephas couldn't be more right; where else could we go? Lord [...] You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.* Are Galatians or Romans any different? Or Revelation? Or for that matter any other book of the Bible? The Life it gives! The good kind, the zoe, that Jesus so frequently promises. Verily, verily, I say to thee: The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.**
* John 6:68-69
** Romans 8:6
4 comments:
you shmuck
i do like that picture.
i also like the Bible.
and i also would challenge you to stick with that commitment. the way it was posed to me was to make it through a year without missing a day of being in the Word. it has now been 608 days, about a year and 8 months. i normally hesitate to share this with people, but i've also found it encouraging (or maybe it irks the competitive side of me) to have examples to follow.
the most amazing thing is that it has gone from being a discipline and a struggle to being a habit and a joy-- if i start to go to bed without having spent time in the Word, i feel like i'm missing something.
so keep at it!
youre so vain...i bet you think this post is about you, dont you?
I am glad someone can capture the picture of a man looking forward to God whole heartedly.
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