What have you found digging into Scripture? Have any of you tried the Ps I’ve suggested? Psalm 127 begins “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” A good verse if you’re about to construct a new home! – but there’s more implied, isn’t there? Whatever it is you’re building – your schedule for the week, your life, a relationship, a career, fitness, trying to get healthier, or your relationship with God – you don’t go it alone but clamp it somehow to the Lord. It’s not passive. You still have to do the work. But looking to God, attentiveness to God, thanking God for the work you can do and the prospering of the results, can change everything.

At our monthly men’s gathering, we pondered Psalm 62. Its very first verse? “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” You don’t need me to tell you to read slowly. The Psalm itself says Stop! Wait! Be quiet! Waiting is something we don’t like to do: a waiting line, waiting in traffic, a waiting room, waiting for test results. Yet so often, Scripture portrays faith as waiting. Psalm 27:14, Psalm 130:4, Isaiah 40:27, and dozen of other passages implore us to hone our skills in being still and waiting, watching, trusting. I suspect that as we cultivate waiting in our spiritual lives, we’ll become calmer while waiting in our daily lives.

Then the next 2 words: “In silence” – something else we’re uncomfortable with, right? But don’t you find all the racket and chatter exhausting? The ability to be still, to listen, to notice a breeze, or a bird, or your own heart beating: wisdom and deep trust in God put down deep roots in the silence. And it’s “for God alone,” implying if you can’t wait in silence you’ll get inundated with fake gods.

What about Philippians? The whole letter is so rich. Paul begins with gratitude, always the way to begin the day, your work, leisure, relationships. Then notice what Paul is grateful for: not stuff for his private enjoyment, but the ways God’s grace is shared among others – and he’s grateful for the good things God is doing in others. I love that. What would relationships be like if we were on the lookout for God’s presence and care in those around us, and even those we don’t know well yet? And being grateful for any and all opportunities (like church!) to share in God’s work with others?

Then notice verse 9! Paul says “I’m praying for you” – always a profound expression of love. But he’s not praying for them to get over being sick. He prays that their love “may abound more and more,” and that their “knowledge and discernment” might also abound. No judgment here, is there? (…as in You think wrong, so I pray you’ll think like I do!…) What would it be like to look and be grateful for God’s work in others, and then to pray that they (and you!) might grow in knowing God and being “filled with fruitfulness” (verse 11)?

Another P? 1 Peter. Its opening verses resound with key themes to contemplate, to pursue, to ask God for: mercy, a living hope, an imperishable inheritance, genuineness, glory and honor, blessing, being born anew. You can’t pick these up in the mall, or at work, or on your own.

But I skated past verse 2 too quickly: Peter (who knew Jesus well, denied him, and then was commissioned to serve him despite his denials!) says his readers (back then, and us today!) are “chosen and destined” – which sounds great! But what are we chosen for? “Obedience to Jesus Christ.” The Chosen People in the Bible were chosen not to horde blessings, but to be God’s instruments in the world to save and serve others; we are now the ones God has chosen so we might obey, gleefully do whatever God needs done, and live holy and productive lives of service and devotion.

I could ramble on and on… I’d love to hear back from you anything you’ve been discovering.