BROADCASTS.com

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)

\xa0

As I reflect on my life and even our church life together right now objectively, I see some great things.\xa0 We\u2019ve begun a time of prayer for one another together over Zoom.\xa0 We\u2019re gathering around the Lord\u2019s Table with some intentionality and curiosity.\xa0 We\u2019re still caring for and supporting one another as a church family, and still worshiping together too.\xa0 Obviously, there are also any number of things that aren't so great.

But, even when just looking at the good things, the subjective reality is quite different.\xa0 Good things or not: the life just seems to be sucked right out of them.\xa0 Everything seems rather flat and dreary, even on sunny days.\xa0 The isolation and fatigue of COVID and this second lockdown is draining us.\xa0 And we are weary.\xa0

If ever there was a time that our path seemed dark, it\u2019s now.\xa0 Uplifting worship, sunshine, a good conversation\u2014none of it seems to pierce the all-consuming darkness that we drag ourselves monotonously through between our same four walls each day.

And yet, the strange inviting promises of our God are to look for him in just such dark and desolate wilderness places to see if he won\u2019t light our way.\xa0 Put our ear to the ground to see if He won\u2019t speak.\xa0

Reading Scripture can be just that way that God grounds us back into reality as he defines and illuminates it, not as our circumstances or weariness does.\xa0 Listening to God speak to us through his Word is an act of attention that can transport us out of the monotony of our time, and into the pregnant, creative possibilities of his.\xa0

Many of us have had a hard time staying faithful to rhythms of reading or prayer since the pandemic first hit.\xa0 But, I\u2019d like to invite you to try it again.\xa0 Maybe through these devotions.\xa0 Through an app that sends you a verse of the day.\xa0 Through picking up the physical book and reading a chapter or so.\xa0 Whatever bit of listening to the word you can take on faithfully each day, no matter how bite-sized, is the right place to start.\xa0

Our Youth Group talked about this Spiritual Discipline of Scripture reading this past Tuesday night.\xa0 So, try it out: join them.\xa0 If you\u2019re a prayer partner, connect with your partner and encourage them.\xa0

Here are some further anecdotes, resources, ideas, and scriptures to invite us into this healthy discipline of faith from our denomination\u2019s faith formation team.\xa0 Check it out here.

\xa0