I know what you're thinking: "Oh no, she wants us to study scripture - in Latin. I'm outta here."
But hang in for a minute. I am a left brain person (more thinking than feeling.) But I'm in a state now where I need to kind of monitor my feelings. A couple of nights ago, when my mind was racing and I couldn't sleep I did a little mini form of Lectio Divina, using an easy and familiar verse from the Psalms:
O, taste and see that the Lord is good, (vs 34)
I picked out (for me) the four most important words then proceeded to go deep with them.
Taste: When did I ever "taste" that the Lord is good? That's a toughie. Then I remembered a time more than fifty years ago when my husband, Ken, and I were living in Georgia where he was in theology school and I was employed at Emory University. We had two pre-school children, Cathy and Scott ,and we all loved to visit Tallulah Falls in Northeast Georgia. It was a beautiful spot. Since the children were small we waded just a bit in the fast moving, very cold water. Then we spread out a blanket, ate some snacks and read to the kids; sometimes Bible stories, sometimes not. But, first, upon arriving, we put Cokes (back then they came only in five oz bottles) in the ice cold stream. So while we were resting and reading we each had an ice cold Coke. (Yes, we gave our pre-schoolers Cokes. We didn't know any better.) Often still I associate the taste of those cokes with those perfect little pockets of time at Toullough Falls.
O yes, another example is communion.
See: This one's easy. Whenever I see or experience tragedy, I find people being brave, loving and kind in unreal ways. "Running to the fire." I'm dealing with it right now, along with heartbreak. It's humbling to just accept it and say thank-you. Mr. Rogers used to tell us that wherever we're scared we should "Look for the helpers." No matter what their beliefs or no-beliefs, I see Christ in them.
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| Tallulah Falls |
Lord: What does the Lord look like? I'm not sure. I used to accept those familiar, stereotype pictures of the white Jesus with the long curly hair. But since the part of God (the Trinity) that walked on this earth was born a Jew in a small town outside Jerusalem, that doesn't do for me. At a Children's Home that I know and love there used to be pictures in the narthex of the chapel depicting Jesus playing soccer and baseball. I thought they were charming and reassuring but a number of visitors complained about the "Jesus playing sports" concept. Occasionally some trouble-making feminists will say "God is a woman" but that is a way too limiting way of describing God. In the last few years I've received peace in abstract paintings that represent the mysterious God-Three-in-One.
Good: This seems like a no-brainer. But the Old Testament God is often portrayed as a vindictive dictator. All three major religions as well as hundreds of different Christian denominations have contradicting views of what "Good" looks like. When someone tells you at your child's funeral that "God needed another angel," that's not my image of God or Good. The image of God is, for me, is one of total love, surrounded by mystery and worthy of deep Lectio Divina. O, taste and see that the Lord is good.
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