Expect the “take-away factor” when reading and ruminating . . .

Expectations are only met, if you have them in advance. Reading and expectations naturally belong together. Expect to see, hear, and frame thoughts and understandings as you read. 

For example, this morning I read and ruminated on Psalm 77  . . .

13 Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?

14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.

15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

 16 The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed.

17 The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth.

18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.

19 Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.

 20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Reading, reflecting and ruminating in my reading, I read the passage thinking about it in a “bunch of ways”—the majority simultaneously  . . .

• historically,
• linguistically,
• analytically,
• topically,
• synthetically (to bring ideas into a some kind of integrated whole), and
• experientially . . .

Then I spoke to myself, “too much thinking JD!!” and asked a question—"so what’s the Psalm saying about God, and to me?”

Simply, what’s its take-away feature? . . . Forget all the “lly’s” . . . what’s the trust God and keep going factor?

I reminded myself, “Because scripture is profound, it’s also simple”—when reading I expect to see, hear, and frame thoughts and understandings in the reading journey . . . stuff to take into my day . . . 

Today’s take-away factor . . .

“While God knows the way, I must make the journey”

Now, on with my day—chewing on my “take-away” . . . 

Past ponderings, can still be a present voice . . . (#3)

Please re-join me again, in my ongoing pondering . . . as I think along about thinking, and crystallise some thoughts . . .

Pondering is ruminating by another name, and more. See we all ponder when we think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion. Essentially, to ponder means, “to weigh in the mind, reflect, and consider with thoroughness and care.” Taking time to read the scriptures and pondering in the reading process is a great and intentional long-time habit.

Some time back along with lots of other folk at our church, I spent “40 days with Jesus.” Over that time, we engaged in daily readings of the life of Jesus. We read the text and daily note commentary, prayed a focused prayer, and pondered on what the “sound of the reading was voicing to us.” I then wrote what was the heart of my daily “hearings.”

Now, a couple of years hence, I’m still hearing—so, here’s the last of three posts considering some of the “ongoing ponderings of my 40 days of Jesus’ journey ” . .  .

• “Allegiance to Jesus can cause division.” Should my allegiance to Jesus cause division, I must remember; “JCD, don’t reciprocate into self-justified mutual-alienation!” I can still choose to be open to those who are becoming “closed to me.”

• “Faith’s an essential in my ongoing journey of “rediscovering the revealed Jesus.” I don’t merely review my existing knowledge and notions of the Jesus I know; I keeping meeting the Jesus I have never known. Hence, faith’s an essential.”

• Responding to Jesus is a "new starting point;” It’s joining a journey of response - aka “encounter”.

• Through walking more and more in Jesus’ love, I will build less and less barriers.

• I can develop a passion to seek people – knowing the Jesus who lives in me has both passion for them and ability to save them . . . when I reach out with Jesus (and the Spirit) I engage in “Jesus seek-n-save-mission-method” - together we seek, solely He saves!!!"

• If I have a heart for people and a passion for the right, God’s character forming in my character directs me in the wisdom of His ways. I will know what to do; I then have to choose to “do that wisdom!”

Past ponderings, can still be a present voice . . . (#2)

Please re-join me in my ongoing pondering . . . as I think along about thinking, and crystallise some thoughts . . .

Taking time to read the scriptures and pondering in the reading process is a great and intentional long-time habit. Pondering is ruminating by another name, and more. See we all ponder when we think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion. Essentially, to ponder means, “to weigh in the mind, reflect, and consider with thoroughness and care.”

Some time back along with lots of other folk at our church, I spent “40 days with Jesus.” Over that time, we engaged in daily readings of the life of Jesus. We read the text and daily note commentary, prayed a focused prayer, and pondered on what the “sound of the reading was voicing to us.” I then wrote what was the heart of my daily “hearings.”

Now, a couple of years hence, I’m still hearing—so, here’s the second of three posts considering some of my “ongoing ponderings” . .  .

• Lost people are the “passion of the seeking Father.”

• “Jesus was not just sent; the God who sent him was with Him. His Father had not sent him into another space – He came from the Father, with His Father and into His Father’s world.”

• In the reading of scripture, God’s Kingdom and Christian church integrate in the person and ongoing mission of Jesus. Seeing them as un-associated entities requires “hermeneutical hallucination.” Neither exists as illusion, both are real; both are a growing incarnation through Christ’s coming into this world. Both call me to an integrated passion and participation. So, since I love Jesus, it is normative to love and passionately participate in both. 

• Relating to people means seeing them as persons – Jesus had this one sussed!

• Like Jesus, faith-friends aren’t our only friends – Selah!!!

• The centrality of suffering isn’t death; its resurrection. Resurrection is not life after death; its life-after-life.

Past ponderings, can still be a present voice . . . (#1)

Join me in pondering . . . as I think along about thinking, and crystallise some thoughts . . .

While “ponder” rhymes with “wander”, they are antonyms.  They are opposites. My mind and heart’s thought can consider and reflect; they can also wander and dissipate. As I read, I can easily wander or ponder. Though, ponder I should.

Taking some time to read the scriptures and pondering in the reading process is long-time habit with me. So, what is pondering? Ruminate by another name? Well, yes; and more.  

We ponder when we think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion. Essentially, to ponder means; “to weigh in the mind, reflect, and consider with thoroughness and care.”

Some time back along with lots of other folk at our church, I spent “40 days with Jesus.” Over that time, we engaged in daily readings of the life of Jesus. We read the text and daily note commentary, prayed a focused prayer, and pondered on what the “sound of the reading was voicing to us.” I then wrote what was the heart of my daily “hearings.”

Now, a couple of years hence, I’m still hearing—here’s the first of three posts considering some of my “ongoing ponderings” .  .  .

• All resources are God’s; He is the owner, we are His stewards.

• Jesus knows what He is doing when He asks me to act. My obedience does not “inform the divine.”

• While Jesus favours neither rich nor poor, take note, He is “clearly focused on the commonly ignored.” With Jesus, those on society’s margins are not to be marginalised.

• No matter how high the cost goes (or seems to go) for me, it will never reach the level Jesus paid in enabling me to become His follower.

• Accountability is the measurement of effectively pursuing one’s entrusted responsibilities.

• “Being lost and knowing it, is the first step towards the experience of being found.”

• Miracles are signs of God’s “reaching out”—not His “showing off.”

When thinking about “throwing in the towel” — forget it . . . you don’t have one to throw . . .

A common idiom saying, “I’m quitting” is “Throwing in the towel”  . . .

I’m no longer going to fight in this arena, so I’m throwing my towel into the ring to signal, “I’m out of here” . . . but there is more to it than that. More than is commonly understood in the idiom’s generalised use. In fact, there is a simple problem, but first background to the idiom.

Definition background: “to throw in the towel and throw in the sponge; or toss in the sponge” comes from boxing, this action taken by the boxer's trainer to stop the fight. The trainer signals their fighter is withdrawing from the fight contest.

A simple problem of understanding – the trainer has the towel, not the fighter!

You cannot toss in what you do not have, but you can remember to trust the trainer . . . now, that gets me into ruminating on some words from the apostle Paul; words to Christians in the past who also “struggled with life in the ring” . . .  reminding them God is with them as their “trainer” . . .

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT)

In feeling the challenge, pressure and trusting the trainer – don’t “bite the bullet” chew on the text . . .

• Knowing that the temptations and pressures in my life are no different from what others experience doesn’t mean it’s easy, just its normative

• The trainer is faithful 

• The trainer will not allow the temptations and pressures to be more than one can stand, he is committed to one’s success, not their mere survival

•  “Stand” is not a synonym for survive – it’s a synonym for endure

•  When you are struggling at energy’s end tempted, the trainer will show you a way out so that you can endure 

Remember the trainer does not have your “dying in the ring in mind” – he does have . . .

•  A towel on his shoulder

• A plan in his heart for your future

• The capacity to enable our fights, fears, failures to serve as fuel to form our future

• Ways of escape, operative for our endurance; not one’s mere survival

 Don’t look for the towel, trust the trainer

Seeking Ruminating Insight - Easter 2014. . .

Hey it’s Easter, what insight could I ruminate over this week?

In resisting the internet, I pull a book from my study shelves. Its an old one, first published in 1927 by a dead guy—he was alive when he wrote it.

H. R. Mackintosh a Scottish scholar, pastor, and theologian in the earlier part of the 20^th century along with others (see if you can recognize his “buddies" in the pix) sought to address “yes but how” biblically reflected responses to life questions in a questioning age.

Mackintosh’s book in my hand is: “The Christian Experience of Forgiveness” (London: Nisbet). I’m reading along in a chapter entitled, “Sin and Guilt” – cool Easter type stuff.

Here’s what I’m reading . . .

“In anyone who knows God as faithfully and unchangeably Redeemer, there is an abiding sense of guilt. Forgiveness does not destroy the knowledge that we are, and have done, evil. That's why the statement that pardon abolishes guilt is not false but it is an abridged one; and as such, a clear expression of the truth that the power of our former guilty sin to banish us from communion with the Father has been taken away. He remembers our sin no more forever, yet we remember it against ourselves; indeed it is more than doubtful whether in any real sense a Christian can ever ‘forgive themselves’ for wrongdoing. . . .”

“. . . Before reconciliation with God the feeling of guilt is purely disabling and saturates the moral life with the consciousness of radical failure. Later as an undertone of felt unworthiness, it now aids in fostering a humility and receptiveness apart from which God cannot be ours.”

Now as I finish reading it (a couple of times over) I’m asking . . .

So, “What’s the good Professor Mackintosh saying?" –

        WRONG QUESTION JCD!! . . .

A better question would be, “What am I seeing?” . . . 

• An abiding sense of guilt is not a feeling of guilt.

• God’s forgiveness enables us to remember the sin that God forgets.

• Forgiveness doesn't deny the existence of evil; by its very action, forgiveness acknowledges evil.

• God forgives us, we don’t forgive Him.

• An understanding of our past sins is not the same as a preoccupation with them.

• Past sins are forensic facts, not foreboding feelings.

• Don’t just seek to get a hold of forgiveness, let forgiveness get a hold of you.

• Under the “gaze of grace” an abiding sense of guilt is not a feeling of guilt.

• Guilt and grace should add up to gratitude.

 JCD remember . . . 

“Reading and ruminating beats reacting, and leads to responding . . .  

so which insight will you chew on?"

Seeking inspiration, try reading your own writing . . .

The KJV’s translation of 1 Corinthians 14:10 resonates in my daily emails; 

• “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification” . . .

I followed my usual procedure of opening my email this morning:

1. deleted some “un-read”
2. deleted some partially read
3. read and ruminated on some
4. read, ruminated and responded to some
5. read, ruminated, reacted and deleted some
6. read, ruminated, reacted and left some for a re-read when my mind has “cooled”
7. read, ruminated, evaluated, and forwarded some, and
8. read and actioned others.

One of the “read and action” group was a survey of purchasing habits and values, lifestyle and leisure trends; interesting. 

Interested in responding to their offer of “reward points,” I’m into the survey.  In the middle of checking choices three boxes with related questions appeared; interesting.

In a flow-of-consciousness I quickly respond to their three questions, then read them over; interesting. Hey, I’m ruminating; interested? 

Read on . . .

What makes you happy? 

• Seeing people improve their opinions of others and attitudes to life's adversities - we can't alter some of life's difficulties, but we can revise our attitudes and actions in the face of them.

What makes you angry?

• It’s more a who, than a what - Me makes me angry . . . that suggests to me I can do something with or about my anger.

What is special about you? 

• I'm allegedly normal . . . that’s frightening.

Before opening my emails this morning I had already intended to read something inspirational as my day commenced. Now I’ve read some; didn’t realise beforehand I might write it first.

• Read your own writing lately?
• How long since you've written something that’s there to read in the first place?  

“There are many voices in the world and they all mean something to someone . . . “

Ready, set - comes before GO . . .

Thinking, chewing over how getting going in life and projects, requires getting ready to get started. Not just starting. You’ve probably guessed it I’m ruminating; my thinking’s “germ” flows from earlier lessons, experiences, and workabilities . . .

Sports were a feature of boyhood days in my neighbourhood; not mere sports in general, athletic sports in particular. In reality, the athletic sport of running. We all got involved, not all succeeded. I was one of the unsuccessfully involved.  But thanks to my brother’s pressure and our mother’s “authority,” I was involved. I was a consistent competitor, starter, finisher, constantly “first at the wrong end;” not a looser, a finisher.  See positive thinking is a life-long practice with me; also learned early, being a “moaner” is counterproductive.

Kit-requirements were minimal. Footwear, bare feet; I was OK for them, born with a pair. Singlet, again OK; put on a clean one every other day. White shorts; duly purchased by mum from the “Family Benefit” allowance.

Each race started with the call to take-up our marks. Settling into our starting stances we listened for three directions; ready, set, go. Go was the point the timekeeper made the first click on her stopwatch, we were running; but for us competitors that was not when the race started. Ready, set - comes before GO . . . for the runner, that’s where the race starts.

In reflection, methinks life’s like this, things start long before I’m seen to be exerting “running energy.”  I take up my mark, settling into a starting place with the finishing goal or purpose in mind. To finish well, I need “marked-perspective” at both ends of the run (aka “race”). I “run my mental and spiritual checklists”  . . . 

• What’s my capacity?

• What does completion look like?

• Will my convictions and actions go in the same direction for the duration?  

Ready - pay attention, I ask myself, “did my run-of-the-checklists increase expectancy or create aversion?”

• If it’s “YES- no” I’m ready for set; if “NO-yes” . . .  . . . ?”

Set says; “be steady, be still, don’t move, rest - but ensure you don’t relax”

GO - time is now running in the race I’d started back when “ready was called” . . .

“Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward - to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back.  So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision - you'll see it yet!  Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it.  Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal” . . .  Philippians 2:13-17 (Message Bible).

PS – Short sprints were not my race. By my 16th birthday I was only 4’ 11” in height (150cm); by next birthday I was 179cm. Later joined a harriers’ club and enjoyed "going greater distances in community and coming home with others at the right end” – longer legs make for a longer race . . .

Now there’s another rumination possibility . . .