A few months ago, this blog spent a month or two discussing how to enjoy the Bible. In this post, we’ll be revisiting some of those ideas, but with the emphasis on the prayer side of praying through scripture. Here’s the thing: there are many, many ways of reading the Bible and many ways of praying. There are even multiple ways of praying through the Bible. What I wish to focus on here is the slow, restful practice of taking time to sit with a single text long enough to absorb and pray over its full meaning for you right now.
Every year, the Biblical Spirituality class at Andrews University sets aside a day to visit a beautiful nearby place and practice this kind of prayer. The assignments for the day include things like, “For the next half hour, pray over John 15:5 in total silence.” When this was assigned to me, I found a comfy place to stare at a tree while trying to keep impatient thoughts like, “Really, a half hour on the same verse?” out of my head. John 15:5 reads, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” To help me absorb this verse, there was a tree in front of me with many branches. I started to draw it as I turned the verse over in my head. I noticed how all the leaves and twigs that made the tree so complicated and difficult to draw were attached, in some way or another, to the trunk. This tree’s whole vitality came from the trunk, much like the vine from this verse. I mulled it all over further. The branches didn’t actually do anything; they just sat there, deriving life from the trunk and passing it onto their leaves. That was a real revelation for me. For so much of my life, I have striven towards behavioral goals--towards performing better in school, towards living what I thought a Christian life should be, towards doing the various things I thought were so important. The verse rebuked me; it showed me the need to be with God, to draw life from Him instead of trying so very hard to do things on my own. I was trying to “bear fruit” without first receiving the life and energy to do so from the Source. Digging even deeper into this, I saw how the pursuit of performance as a primary goal had hurt myself and others, and how performance naturally follows when we begin by putting God first. When we were called back inside to share our insights, I was amused, as usual for the Seminary, at how many of these young preachers felt the need to “preach” their insights in fairly dramatic ways. But I understood it--who hasn’t felt the pressure to perform at some point or other? Who hasn’t been tempted to neglect their first love in the pursuit of greater performance? Performing is easy; relational authenticity is harder. All of this came from a half hour of just praying and resting in one verse. This can be done with almost any verse in the Bible, though some are easier to process this way than others. In the stories, great, healing insights can come from using your sanctified imagination to insert yourself in the story. The words of Scripture are not only records of how God has worked in the past, but also God’s wisdom for what is going on in your life now. To read the Bible from just one perspective or the other all the time leads to excesses, but prayerfully considering God’s action in the past alongside what He might be trying to say to you now can reap beautiful, abundant rewards. Naturally, my half-hour exercise with John 15:5 did not forever cure me of chasing after performance goals, or by measuring myself in that way. I wouldn’t even say that I’m 100% cured of it now, though it’s less of a nagging force than it was then. The exercise did bring the matter to my attention in a profound way, though, and gave me a memory to use as a springboard for dealing with it better in the future. Similarly, the insights you gain from this prayer/scripture hybrid will work on you over time, rather than instantly. A special note to anyone out there who, like me, frequently has to read or study the Bible on behalf of others: it is vital that you take time regularly to “feed yourself.” By this I mean that if you only ever pray for others and read the Bible to gain insights to pass on to other people, your personal spirituality will quietly start to wither. It’s the same as if you were a chef who created fabulous meals for other people but never ate anything beyond a tasting sip here or there to make sure the food turned out. A chef in this condition would eventually die of malnutrition and their art would die with them. As one who gathers spiritual food for others, do not starve yourself. People in this role need this specific practice more than most because they may not have a “chef” cooking for them. Slow prayer from the scriptures, just for you, is as nourishing, necessary, and healthfully indulgent as home-cooking a beautiful meal for yourself to eat at the end of a long day. Better yet, it brings the Divine Master Chef into the process, preparing with flair a customized delight no one else could have possibly made for you.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
Categories |