One of the beautiful things to come out of the NCYM conference for me this past week was the early morning devotional that is offered every morning. What is funny, is that on the first day, the room is full, and as the week progresses, those who stay up the latest, usually begin to drop off the fastest! Anyway, in our early morning devotionals with Dr. Lavender from Lipscomb, we spent some time reflecting on what it means to receive the day expectantly.
Each day is gift of God. Every breath, every human interaction, every step of our every day can be received as an opportunity to see God at work in us, and around us. For a lot of us though we have a tendency to get so busy doing, that we fail to take time to just simply “be.” I was reminded I am a human being not a “human doing.”
One of the spiritual exercises we did together was lectio divina (prayer meditative reading). Lectio allows listeners to interact with the text of Scripture in a different way. God’s Word is powerful, and effective. He speaks through his Word. We affirm this truth to our students in our ministries, and our congregations in our churches. But we often try and dictate how God can be God.
One of the exercises we did this past week was lectio divina in Psalm 107. There are four groups of people who wind up straying away from God’s story. At the point of their greatest trouble they cry out to the Lord in their distress. It seems that they remembered that when there is no one else, there is Only One who can help. God intervenes, and brings them back into the story. We were given the task to reflect on the Psalm, and add a paragraph that writes ourselves into the story. I like doing this. For reflecting on the Word, and what we are hearing from God is beneficial.
Here’s my story.
Writing myself into the story:
And still others, such as myself bought into a different story
a story that offers death not life, offers slavery not freedom,
despair not hope.
I once once knew THE story but the entrapments of this life were to much
I hid themselves from reality, from God, from my community, from my family
Not sure anymore if I could be loved, forgiven and useful in the kingdom
And yet, I cried out to the Lord in MY brokenness
And he does what he does best…rebuilds the broken, lifts the fallen
and offered yet another invitation to embrace his story
He reminded me, He hadn’t forgotten me
that he Himself never waivers
That he is close to the brokenhearted, and sin-sick
that he forgives fully
I will give thanks to the Lord
for his unfailing love and his
wonderful deeds for men
I will tell others of the beauty of the story of hope
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