Throw the Bible out the window! What?

Not so many years ago, I embarrassed myself during a conversation with a friend and fellow church member, a learned pastor and medical doctor who served many years as a missionary in Africa. “Sometimes I just want to throw the Bible out the window!” I blurted. His startled expression made me realize what a strong statement I had uttered and how open it was to being interpreted as sacrilegious. I hastened to explain. “There’s so much to know about the background and context and original language of any given passage. How can we find meaning without an interpreter’s resource constantly at our side?” He cautioned, “Don’t count out the Holy Spirit.” Oops. Yes, the Holy Spirit, always present to guide us as we read and search. And this humble servant gave witness to believers in Africa who had no other source than the Bible itself whose insights upon reading it were amazing and life-giving.

That conversation humbled me and made me think, reminding me always to invoke the Spirit when I study the Scriptures. Nonetheless, the conversation did not dampen—nor was it meant to—my enthusiasm for spirit-led, faith-fed exegesis. When I first heard the word exegesis I thought it was exe-Jesus. (I think I’m very brave to admit that!) But if you are a mathematician, you know that you exegete the root of an equation. And if you are a student of the Bible—and how can you not be a student of the Bible if you consider yourself a serious Christian?—you know that exegesis is the “exposition, critical analysis, or interpretation of a word, literary passage, etc., especially of the Bible” (Webster’s).

Recently, through exegesis, I learned about the significance in John 19, verse 20, of the King of the Jews inscription posted on the cross being written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The gospel writer was signaling that Jesus died for the whole (known) world, not just the original chosen people. Also, the trilingual caption expressed Pilate’s contempt.

Since I have engaged in exegeting biblical stories and passages—largely for the purpose of writing the Sunday by Sunday series—the material has come alive with meaning and is far more interesting as well as sensible. In the next blog, I’ll tell how study and reflection and pondering have helped me come to positive terms with one of the most troubling stories of the Old Testament, the command to sacrifice Issac.

The reading habit

Remember that Twilight Zone episode with the extreme book worm, a diminutive fellow who appears to be legally blind without his thick-lensed glasses? He lives to read and hides in the vault every lunch hour at the bank where he works. One day, he comes out to find that nuclear holocaust has wiped out everybody but him. After a brief period of shock, he runs to the library and is running up the steps excited and delighted when he trips and falls and his glasses shatter. Remember that one?

And another avid reader – I have this vivid, dear memory of my 10-year-old daughter marching into the dining area with an armload of books—nine of them, I think—plunking them on the table, and methodically reading a chapter in each until she’d worked through the whole stack.

Probably not ever nine, but I’m often reading three books at a time: something of a devotional/spiritual nature for early morning, a novel for evening, and a biography for fitting in as possible. At the moment: Christology by Hans Schwarz, Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, and Nature’s Storyteller, The Life of Gene Stratton-Porter by Barbara Olenyik Morrow.

Isn’t it a pity that one lifetime can never be long enough to read all the books we would like to read? My list has at least 50 titles on it right now, works that I’ve heard reviewed or discovered on blogs or heard about from others. This passion for reading that so many of us share has me thinking about my reading habits and interests—and just for fun, I’d love to hear about yours, too. Please.

Back on track with early morning walk

Back on track with the first early morning walk through the hood in months, I am filled with gratitude and hope and sense of purpose. Very cool, and not to be taken for granted, this feeling.

A few blocks from my house there is a huge expanse of Rosemary banking a front yard, and in a sidewalk conversation, the woman who lives there had issued a standing invitation to partake. So, I broke off several big branches with bright purple blossoms, now gracing my living room with its fragrance and freshness, arranged in the cut glass vase given several Christmases ago by daughter two. And now, I’m thinking of a lovely woman named Rosemary, who I am so glad I got to know, who died a couple weeks ago.

And when I saw a pink dressing table cast to the curb, I thought of my sis in CA, wondering if she would have carried it back to her house. She has great talent for renovating such stuff. Even with its missing drawer and shadowy mirror, she could transform it into an artistically funky piece of furniture.

‘Twas chilly enough for gloves and headband and winter jacket, yet the ground under tulip trees is littered with their lavender flowers, an atypical sight for February. With the warm weather we’ve been having, daffodils and tulips are in full bloom and all manner of green sprouts are pushing through the dirt at least a month early. What in the world?

A smile exchanged with a commuter at a stop sign and friendly greeting with a dog walker I see at community meetings was pleasant for my soul.

“i thank You God for most this amazing day,” beginning in stark contrast to the one before. Yesterday I awoke with "damnable ennui "(see poem below), claustrophobia of the soul, acedia. The good and Holy Spirit interceded with weapons and the strength to use them. Physical activity, delicious food, communicating with friends, space and time for listening in prayer and meditation turned things around.

I wish for each of you, my friends, a day filled with that which you need.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Unwilling Spirit

Energy abounds.
“Let’s go!” the body says.
“Time’s a-wastin’ and if we hasten,
we can change the world a bit.”
But heartless energy only sputters
like a willing motor with loose connections.
“Rest for awhile,” comes the spirit’s hopeful whisper,
but “No!” says flesh.
“Forget duty and logistics
and indulge in long postponed pleasure,” the spirit weakly exhorts.

Even this temptation dies away
into a blue dream sky whose beauty
seems too distant to behold.
Damnable ennui sets in and, unabated,
holds body and soul alike
in a vice of nervous idleness.

Finally, nightfall gives cover for the fleshly defeat,
and unwilling spirit sleeps, too,
with dreams of no more tortured days.

Copyright © 2010 Cristy C. Fossum. Create in Me Enterprises, 1215 Beaufort St.,
Columbia, South Carolina 29201. May not be reproduced or transmitted in any form
whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Oops. I forgot I had a blog.

Since I finished writing the series on my book tour (last entry on January 11), I’ve not even thought about blogging. After five months at a feverish pace to complete and publish Sunday by Sunday III and then the tour, I have not been in a writing mode, not even much in my personal journals. Lining up income and then working to procure said has been my primary endeavor in this new year, and I am happy to report that income is lining up in ways both interesting and gratifying.

So rat-a-tat-tat, the beat goes on. I’m not sure what I’m even writing about here, just trying to get back in the routine, I think. Modest book sales in January are a pleasant surprise, with several readers catching up by ordering both II and III. Also encouraging are a few invitations to speak and lead retreats that have been extended for later in 2012.

If you are on my email subscriber list, stay tuned for an update focused on the “word of mouth” dynamic and its importance for writers. I’ll be expressing gratitude for the impact many of you have already made on my behalf and making suggestions about more ways to help me in my writing and marketing enterprises if you feel so moved.