Everyday Black Matters
For almost 3 years, I’ve been using the Seeking God’s Face Devotional Prayer Bible as my primary quiet time entry point. I have a 3.5 yr. old son. It’s been a wonderful tool as I’ve weathered the grueling life stage that is raising small children. Ain’t nobody got time to bust out markers & print off manuscripts whilst spending 30 minutes just on observations. (Pre-children, this is what I used to do, people). Wanna know what? I freaking loved that time. I absolutely adore in-depth manuscript Bible study, but I understand it’s not always a reality.
{Goodbye old friend}
I feel my reality shifting a bit. Seeking God’s Face became my new normal. A bit old hat, unfortunately. It hit me the other day: I need to grow in depth in my relationship with the Lord, pronto.
My one word for 2013 is establish. I want to lay the foundations deeper in my relationship with the Lord. These past 3.5 yrs. since Rhysie was born, I needed the quick & dirty quiet time life. I needed the table set out for me. (I.e. Here’s your Psalms, here’s your Proverb, here’s your quiet moment, here’s your daily passage, here’s your prayer requests, here’s your application prayer).
In this last week, I’ve sensed I need something different in my {not nearly} daily times with the Lord. I need to establish some new practices, new books, new guides, new teachers. Yesterday, I raided our overstocked book shelves for some oldies but goodies…
{Hello new, old friends}
Last night, I started reading The Attentive Life by Leighton Ford. Oh my. It was like finding a tall glass of ice water after doing an hour of Zumba on the beach in Miami in late August in sweatpants & ear muffs. I made it to page 12 after a highlighting, underlining frenzy.
Each of us is part of a Greater Story, and behind our stories is a Storyteller calling us home. The deepest longing I have is to come home to my own heart, so in a sense I am writing this book for myself. But it is not just about me, for I believe all our stories are of longing and of looking. ~ Leighton Ford, The Attentive Life
This morning, I opened my quiet time with one of my old fave’s Devotional Classics. Again, with the ice water example. A lot of people who lived between 1500-1800 had some beautifully complex things to say but they’ve yet to make it to make to Amazon’s top 100.
As thou art in church or cell, that same frame of mind carry out into the world; into it’s turmoils and fitfulness. Deep within in all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. It is a light within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon our faces. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And hs is within us all. ~ Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion {In the book pictured above, Devotional Classics}
Undoubtedly, this seemingly sudden urge to grow in depth of faith has been spurred by the almost constant nagging fear daily pulling my heart strings.
I find it interesting that, in the year I felt the Lord gave me the word “establish” I would become so emotionally unraveled that I literally have no choice but to establish new habits, new daily commandments, new rules for marriage, not to mention establishing a new company & a new online magazine after a job loss and new income streams in contexts that are all new.
Some may call me crazy. I say all is grace. I must be brave, because the God of Heaven & earth has given me a chance to start over and establish something new. In more ways than I can now say, my old life is gone.
It’s no wonder, I’m pushing hard into my faith, scrambling for good books. I have no illusions of security or certainties! I am literally free falling.
Pardon me God, I’ve just stepped off a very large cliff, so, you’re like, uh, going to catch me right?
Join me in depth? The books listed {affiliate links}:
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Every 1st Monday of the month, I’ll be taking seriously my One Word for 2013 by joining Kristin, Alyssa, Suzannah, Leigh, Danielle & others to update our one word progress. You can join the OneWord365.com community & use the #onewordupdate hashtag on Twitter to follow along.
The word I chose was Establish.
Here’s my January 2013 update
Here’s my February 2013 update
Here’s my March 2013 update
You’ve just finished my April 2013 #OneWord Update
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