The last six months I've gotten increasingly slack on my Bible study, journaling and prayer. I've gone from nearly every day to once or twice a week. As I read through my journal last night I realised that I may be writing less often but what I'm thinking about has shifted slightly. Strange statement; I think I'm thinking more...
My entries have become naturally more creative with drawings of prayer and things stuck in to commemorate memories or to provoke thought. My streams of consciousness are more legible and articulate than before and I can trace threads of process through a couple of months of writing.
Journalling is actually helping me to consider, muse and resolve.
Inspired (and pressured) by Transit's challenge of reading the Bible in nine months I've begun to get a daily rhythm in place. Smiles and I are meeting each other on the sofa with a cup of tea and our Bible each morning, grunting greetings and then diving into the days passage in silence. By the end we've woken up, generally been inspired by some new aspect of God's character, have a short pray and send each other into the day with an awake brain and a thoughtful mind.
It's still a wrench to get up when the alarm goes off but it makes it a lot easier to do knowing I'm meeting a good friend on the sofa. We're going to try and sustain it for six weeks (make ourselves a new habit) and get through the Bible by this time next year.
I think I've written before about my attempt to comprehend the fearsomeness of God. It's something I've been musing on for a few months and would definitely be an aspect of Gods character I hesitate to explore. As I've meandered my way through Exodus I've been struck by the descriptions of the glory of God decending on Mount Sanai...
"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightening with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast... Mount Sanai was covered in smoke because the Lord decended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder." Exodus 19:16-19
Just imagine it, close your eyes and try to conjure up the image of that mountain ablaze, then try to comprehend who could be powerful enough to cause such a violent reaction to His surroundings with His presence... That's what I'm trying to get my feable mind around... xc