One Word and God’s Word

As you read this I’m in Florida for a long weekend.  Ostensibly for a fund-raiser for World Vision, but let’s be honest, I’ll be with friends and the temperature will be above 30 degrees farenheit.  I’m not suffering for Jesus here.

“Choosing life” is easy with beauty all around you.  Vibrant color, warm pavement under bare feet, up-lifting conversations.  But this week, living in the left-hand picture hasn’t been all Bougainvillea, sunshine, and Calamari.  Some experiences felt dismissive, some choices by others that felt unjust.  Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but a little bumpy nevertheless. The kind of thing many, many people experience daily for years and years.

How can we not deny the “death” parts, but still choose life in healthy, non-Pollyanna ways?  Still keep perspective?

Whether it’s my “One Word” – “Life”, or yours, God’s Word about it is always true, always the perspective to seek.  It’s the corrective lens that’s going to help us live into growth.  As I write that it sounds a bit cheesy and I don’t mean it that way at all.  But there is something mystical about the way God can, over time, use His Word in our lives to shape us.

I continue to hear from you “awakeners” about what One Word you’ve chosen or how you’re still in process.  And of course some of you just don’t like the idea.  It’s all good. Wherever you are, today I want to suggest a spiritual practice.

Think of your “one word”, (or A word), then think of the opposite.  For me that would be “Life” and “Death”.  Now look up both words in the concordance at the back of your Bible.  Choose one verse or two and just “marinate” in them this weekend.  Write them down someplace where you will see them a couple of times.  Ask yourself, “How am I processing the events of this day in light of these verses?”

So here’s mine:

Romans 8:6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

What about you?