Three Powerful Questions

Unsplash: Edward Lawrence

As you might know, I'm an avid nature-lover and nature-journaler (check out this post if you want to learn more). It is a practice that I came across in our homeschooling journey, and one that I still enjoy, even as my children are in high school and college. Sometimes, my nature journal looks more like a quick entry into a notebook and a printed sticky photo beside it, instead of a hand-drawn illustration, but it is a way I love to document the natural world and how it changes throughout the year. Often, my entries include new-to-me plants, flowers, and insects; other times, it simply records the first snowfall of the year or the first firefly of the summer (which was yesterday in our parts!)

The Naturalist's Notebook by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright

Through nature journaling, I've learned to ask three questions, thanks to the instruction of naturalist author and teacher John Muir Laws.

These questions are:

1. "I notice..."
2. "I wonder..."
3. "It reminds me of..."

Question #1 helps me to slow down and observe the detail of what I am seeing. I notice its color, texture, shape, or behavior. These unfiltered observations can be quickly jotted in a notebook.

Question #2 transforms these simple observations into active curiosity and inquiry. It helps me to generate questions about the subject's purpose, how it might work, or why a certain characteristic I am noticing might exist.

Question #3 exists to build connections between what I am seeing and the information I already know. It helps me to uncover patterns, identify metaphors, and ultimately serves to deepen my memory and understanding of what I am seeing.

I recently reflected upon the power of these three questions when I study God's Word, as well.  After reading a Bible passage, it helps me to slow down and just notice the surface details such as who is doing the speaking, where the action is happening, what exactly is going on or being said. I can ask myself: what do I notice in this passage?

Next, I endeavor to ask the second question, I wonder..., and apply it to the passage. Is there a cultural context I am unfamiliar with and might not be clear about? (If so, I highly recommend the IVP Bible Background Commentary as a helpful resource) or maybe I jot down a few questions to ask my pastor or think further about on my own.

Third, I consider the question This reminds me of...and I attempt to make connections between this passage of Scripture and things I know about our world or with other places in Scripture. For example, I recently read a passage in Jeremiah (see below) and it reminded me of a similar passage I had read a few years ago in Ezekiel:

“Your words were found, and I ate them,

    and your words became to me a joy

    and the delight of my heart,

for I am called by your name,

    O Lord, God of hosts."             —Jeremiah 15:16

 

"And he said to me, 'Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.' So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, 'Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.’ Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey."                —Ezekiel 3:1-3

By considering these passages together, it got me thinking further about what it means to "eat" God's Word, in contrast to "reading" or "studying" it, which are the verbs I typically use when I think of my interaction with God's Word (see this previous blog post to learn more about "tasting" God's Word).

And I didn't use the word "last" when I got to question #3 because these questions serve as a gateway to more questions, questions that might involve asking God what He would have me do that day, or whether there is a sin I should confess, or if there's a person He wants me to reach out to...you get the idea. As always, Bible study leads us to a greater end: worship (praising God for who He is), prayer (conversing with God about what we learn and confessing sin), and application of His Word in our lives (a daily, sometimes slow-going process as we become more like Christ through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit). 

Three powerful questions.

Three powerful ways we can dig into God's Word to better understand it and see how it relates to our daily modern lives.

I pray that we would not only see the wonder of the natural world around us this summer, but that we would grow in our knowledge and curiosity of God's Word, too, dear friend. I trust these questions will help us both to notice, to wonder, and to make connections, all to the glory of God and for our ultimate good. 

Forget Not His Benefits

Unsplash: Jon Tyson

As I've grown up in the church, somewhere along the line I've been taught to love God for "just being God" and not for what He can give me.

Several scriptures echo this sentiment as well: 

Paul encourages us to love and worship the Creator and not the creation in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans (see Rom 1:21-23).

James makes it clear in his letter to the church that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above (see 1:17).

And so it came as a refreshing surprise this week as I was in the Psalms to realize that David encourages us as God's people to "forget not God's benefits" in Psalm 103.  Look at verse 1 and 2 with me:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and all that is within me,

    bless his holy name!

 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits..."   Ps 103:1-2 (emphasis mine)

What follows these verses is a catalog of all the "benefits" we have as the covenant children of God that we can thank Him for:

• forgiveness of sins (v. 3, 10, 12)
• healing from diseases (v. 3)
• redemption from the pit (v. 4)
• a crown of streadfast love and mercy (v. 4, 11, 17)
• renewed energy and youthfulness (v. 5)
• justice and the working out of righteousness for us (v. 6)
• God's revealing of his ways to us (v. 7)
• His mercy and grace toward us (v. 8)
• God's compassion (v. 13)
• His seeing our weaknesses and loving us with compassion (v. 14-16)

When I think upon it, this concept of loving God for who He is AND for all the benefits He imparts to us makes sense. 

While I love my husband for the man that he is, I also love and appreciate how he provides for our family through a full-time job. I am blessed by the military and veteran benefits he and I both receive through income, health care, and life insurance. Do I love him because he provides a roof over my head and allows me to have adequate health insurance coverage? Of course not!  I would still love him if he suddenly became unemployed and we had to sell our home and live out our days in our minivan. BUT I can be thankful for him AND for all the benefits I enjoy as his wife (and be grateful I don't have to live out of a car!).

So today, dear friend, let's endeavor to praise God for who He is, yes, but also for all the benefits we enjoy as His children because of His deep and indescribable, unearned, and never-ending love He has for us.

Let us, in David's words "forget not His benefits" and may our day, our week, our year, our lives, never be the same for it!

Sipping Downstream

Unsplash: Matthieu Petel

It wasn't long ago when I was chopping up vegetables to put into a tossed salad. The house was quiet; it was that awkward hour before dinner and evening activities, but after the school day for my teenagers.

My mind wandered. I was bored.

Like a roulette wheel, my mind shuffled through all the options that could brighten this late afternoon and give me a lift after the salad was assembled and the table set...

a scroll down social media, a glass of wine, online shopping for that graphic tee I'd been eyeing, a sweet treat...

And then, I felt the Lord tell me--in my heart of hearts--that these things weren't bad, but that'd I'd be "sipping downstream."

I thought about that image in my mind.

You see, if Christ is our ultimate source of satisfaction and comfort, then I liken him to a fountainhead. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a fountainhead as the starting point, the principle source, of a stream or river, and to sip downstream from that could only mean two things: 

You are sipping diluted water (at best) or polluted water (at worst).

I think of all those minerals that come from natural springs that become diluted the further out you gather up a glass to bottle it up and enjoy its medicinal qualities.

I think of all the cities, power plants, and landfills that rivers ultimately pass by to empty into the Chesapeake Bay, close to my house. I'd never want to drink from all that toxic pollution!

Instead, God draws us to Himself to enjoy the REAL deal--the true source of pleasure, delight, comfort, peace, and rest. He created us to be unsatisifed with diluted or polluted sources of these things.

So in that moment, as I pivoted to the sink to wash up my knife and cutting board, I prayed. I prayed that the Lord would meet my need and be my cure for restless boredom. I asked Him to soothe my buried stress, calm my anxieties, give me peace and rest in Him alone.

A few days later, as I studied the book of Jeremiah, I found this challenge within it's pages:

"And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?"  Jeremiah 2:18

To God's people in the Old Testament, Egypt was a place of great wealth, stability, political power and military strength. But the Almighty God was in covenant with His people and called them to love and fear Him, to depend upon Him to lead them, provide for them, and strengthen them.

I am left to think about how I turn to "Egypt" for comfort and solace, strength and peace, when I'd only be sipping downstream from the Fountainhead of my Lord and Savior.

I am still working out how drinking from the Fountainhead...and not sipping downstream...looks, day to day, hour by hour, and I know I am not alone. I smile to hear a song from Forest Frank on my Pandora station: 

"Give me faith to move mountains

How could I be thirsty, when I'm sippin' from Your fountain..."       Thank You song

How about you, dear friend? Will you join me in considering ways you "sip downstream" in your life...in big ways...in small ways...diluting God's peace and joy in your life? May we not settle for diluted or polluted sources of strength and comfort, but turn to God in prayer and seek His Word each day to refresh and guide us at the deepest level.