God
Scripture
Faith
My friend Jim sent me some more faith-related advice, which I thought I'd share with the rest of you!
He relayed to me that the Bible isn't something which is meant to be read like a book, cover-to-cover-- rather, it's something where you pick out pieces and prayerfully meditate on them. The good news is that I've already been keeping that in mind! I fell into that mistake with the Old Testament a couple of years ago and got burnt out, because contextually I had no idea what I was even reading half the time.
But the reminder was still timely, in the sense that I've been viewing scripture in two ways: the first is as a source of study, which is what I've been writing about here. I read the Gospels, then Acts since it follows those, and now I'm on a Paul kick. But I'll go wherever I feel inspired next, taking lots of notes as I go. I really want to treat this as a "first pass" on scripture, then I can spend the rest of my life doing deep dives. For now I feel like I just need to read it!
The second-- and this is where the reminder is especially helpful-- is to incorporate scripture more into my prayer life using techniques like Lectio Divina. And this is what my friend is getting at: pausing, praying, and reflecting. I haven't quite figured out the best way. My priest friend suggested the Magnificat, which has the daily Mass in it along with reflections for the readings-- he uses it to help himself with writing homilies for the week day Masses, for instance.
Another thing my friend said to me is to focus on God, who He is, and what He says about me. My friend thinks I'm trying to control outcomes-- and he's absolutely, one hundred percent correct.
His suggestion is to discern, in all aspects but in particular related to my church involvement, what am I being called by the Lord to do, versus what do I feel obligated to do to "help out". For those things in the former category, God will direct me and handle the outcomes! For the things in the latter category, He has no obligation to see them succeed, which makes sense.
Interestingly, I'd been talking to my wife about this just a few days ago, and it's a work-in-progress. Things I am completely and absolutely sure I'm being called to do: apply to the diaconate; and my liturgical ministry involvement. He's given me zillions of totally obvious signs and signals regarding those-- I'm stubborn and wasn't listening, so He continually amped them up until I did listen.
But some of the other things, I'm not so certain about. They fall in various places on the spectrum of "I'm not sure if I'm called", to "I kind of got myself roped into this one, and it's not necessarily a great fit." If I do get accepted into the diaconate formation, I am perfectly comfortable with setting some boundaries and rolling off of certain things-- because I'll have to; borne out of necessity!
The final thing my friend is helping me with are my sleep issues. He sent me the following: Proverbs 3:24; 2 Tim 1:7; Psalm 4:8; Isaiah 26:3. All of those are absolutely fantastic-- I will sit with and absorb them. My current sleep issues seem to be Circadian Rhythm based; I think I did a number on myself during those super stressful weeks recently. I've been feeling really good from an anxiety standpoint lately, yet the sleep has still been very poor.
I feel very blessed to have people like Jim and my priest friend, helping me through my fledgling spiritual journey!
He relayed to me that the Bible isn't something which is meant to be read like a book, cover-to-cover-- rather, it's something where you pick out pieces and prayerfully meditate on them. The good news is that I've already been keeping that in mind! I fell into that mistake with the Old Testament a couple of years ago and got burnt out, because contextually I had no idea what I was even reading half the time.
But the reminder was still timely, in the sense that I've been viewing scripture in two ways: the first is as a source of study, which is what I've been writing about here. I read the Gospels, then Acts since it follows those, and now I'm on a Paul kick. But I'll go wherever I feel inspired next, taking lots of notes as I go. I really want to treat this as a "first pass" on scripture, then I can spend the rest of my life doing deep dives. For now I feel like I just need to read it!
The second-- and this is where the reminder is especially helpful-- is to incorporate scripture more into my prayer life using techniques like Lectio Divina. And this is what my friend is getting at: pausing, praying, and reflecting. I haven't quite figured out the best way. My priest friend suggested the Magnificat, which has the daily Mass in it along with reflections for the readings-- he uses it to help himself with writing homilies for the week day Masses, for instance.
Another thing my friend said to me is to focus on God, who He is, and what He says about me. My friend thinks I'm trying to control outcomes-- and he's absolutely, one hundred percent correct.
His suggestion is to discern, in all aspects but in particular related to my church involvement, what am I being called by the Lord to do, versus what do I feel obligated to do to "help out". For those things in the former category, God will direct me and handle the outcomes! For the things in the latter category, He has no obligation to see them succeed, which makes sense.
Interestingly, I'd been talking to my wife about this just a few days ago, and it's a work-in-progress. Things I am completely and absolutely sure I'm being called to do: apply to the diaconate; and my liturgical ministry involvement. He's given me zillions of totally obvious signs and signals regarding those-- I'm stubborn and wasn't listening, so He continually amped them up until I did listen.
But some of the other things, I'm not so certain about. They fall in various places on the spectrum of "I'm not sure if I'm called", to "I kind of got myself roped into this one, and it's not necessarily a great fit." If I do get accepted into the diaconate formation, I am perfectly comfortable with setting some boundaries and rolling off of certain things-- because I'll have to; borne out of necessity!
The final thing my friend is helping me with are my sleep issues. He sent me the following: Proverbs 3:24; 2 Tim 1:7; Psalm 4:8; Isaiah 26:3. All of those are absolutely fantastic-- I will sit with and absorb them. My current sleep issues seem to be Circadian Rhythm based; I think I did a number on myself during those super stressful weeks recently. I've been feeling really good from an anxiety standpoint lately, yet the sleep has still been very poor.
I feel very blessed to have people like Jim and my priest friend, helping me through my fledgling spiritual journey!