Musings on the Daily Lectionary

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

I've been away for almost a week, on vacation in Miami. While there I did something I've almost never done. I read a book while sitting on the beach. I usually spend any beach time playing in the waves, but the water was a bit chilly, so I read. And the book I had brought was The Shack, by Wm. Paul Young.

I know that I came to the party a bit late on this one. A lot of you probably read it some time ago, but I had not gotten around to it. The beach provided a perfect opportunity however, and once I started it I had a hard time putting it down.

Something about Mack, the main character in the book, resonated with me, and I found his experiences at the shack very illuminating. Through them he moved from knowing a lot about God (or at least thinking he knew a lot about God) to developing a relationship with God that allowed him to entrust himself fully to God's care.

For me, trust and faith are often fairly mechanical things. I believe them on a certain level and even act on those beliefs at times. But I'm not sure I would usually describe my faith in terms of relationship and intimacy with God, and watching Mack journey toward intimacy with God was very moving to me.

I think I will always be a theologian at heart, and so I mean no slight to theologians or theology by this. But I wonder if I could sometimes do with a bit less theologizing and a bit more relating. I wonder if I don't need to spend less time considering and contemplating God, and more time connecting to God. And I also wonder exactly how I go about that.

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