I have tried to read the Bible on so many occasions I’ve lost count. I even listened to the Bible In A Year podcast for most of the year a few years back; it was a helpful resource, doing it that way, but it didn’t stick. Simply ‘sitting down to read the scripture’ is a tough task. Strategy helps. A few years ago, I learned of several methods for studying the Bible as well as a meditative tool called Lectio Divina. I am more drawn to the latter, as I find God speaking to me in silent reflective contemplation, but studying scripture is also helpful when we put it in the context of the life we’re living today. During my time in the Living School, we read many spiritual texts, including very old ones … not as ancient as the writings in the Bible…

God is not a concept, idea, law, ideology or deity in the clouds, distant from us. God is beyond what you can think, has human qualities but is not human, is always happening, always now, is always with us — nearer to us than we are to ourselves. God is love personified, and yet God cannot be explained. God is. (Yes, that’s a full sentence.) God IS. But the problem is that we can’t wrap our heads around that. Creation wasn’t a one time event. It is always happening, because God is always happening. This is hard for us to grasp too, because we live in a culture of deadlines, goals and finishing. Who of us doesn’t imagine ourselves ‘arriving’ somewhere in the future … the perfect job, car, partner, house, vacation, the ‘perfect life?’ We’re wired to constantly work toward an end, and…