Setting The Pace

Each day, I've been reading a little bit from the Book of Genesis.  I have always loved the Old Testament more than the New.  As I child, I read through the entire Bible three times (before the age of 12), and all the complicated (and sometimes convoluted) messes that Old Testament characters got themselves in appealed to my vivid imagination.  The same holds true today.  There is always some little insight I can glean from the narrative.

Jacob seems a little passive-aggressive.  As a therapist and helping professional, I know that's not the best way.  But maybe we don't always have a choice.  Perhaps direct confrontation is not always helpful, even though that's what I have always tried to do with people.

Jacob and Laban can never really fully make up.  Too much has gone on between them, and Jacob really needs to move on.  Well, the least they can do is try to talk things over, share a meal, and establish a covenant.  In this life, we can't always have the kind of closure that we deserve.  But moving on is always healthy.

Good pieces of advice as I set the pace for the New Year.

I've also been reading Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross.  This is a spiritual classic, right up there with The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, which I read this past summer.  There is so much rich wisdom within Catholic tradition.  We Protestants would do well to read some of those classics.

This summer, I got a lot of prayer from different sources--the prayer ministry at Elm City Vineyard, the Pasadena International House of Prayer, and the prayer team at Hope Christian Fellowship.  Within one semester, everything that was prayed over me has come to pass--or is still in the works.  I used to shy away from such prophetic things, because my family experienced upheaval and chaos in the wake of being in a charismatic church.  But I've found that I cannot ever fully avoid these unsettling encounters with the Holy Spirit, so I've learned to accept them and try to keep a sane head on my shoulders.

It does get better.  You learn how to discern what you are told.  You learn to hold your own in the midst of others' voices.  You learn to go first to God when you are confused.

In the end, fulfilled prophecy and answered prayer really is a beautiful thing.  It is a gift, not to be demanded or expected.  But it is from God.

I'm setting the pace for 2016 through prayer these days.  There's no schedule to speak of quite yet (I don't return to New Haven for another 11 days), but I am mentally gearing up--slowly.

Sometimes you wait for a very long time for any small glimpse of clarity.  I have been waiting all Fall for some hint about my future.  I knew I had to wait and be patient.

Last night, it felt a bit clearer to me.  For that I am glad.  And I feel so relieved, like the burden of uncertainty is lightened significantly.  We'll see how things play out, and once they do, I'll be sure to share :)