The book of James has been the focus of an initiative called 'Bible Month' where, for the month of June, earlier this year, people were encouraged to spend #30_days_with_James, as part of reconnecting with the Bible! (I know churches that work with the material provided for it in other months too!) For me, this is what Bible journalling is all about! It enables me to re-connect with the words in my Bible in a different way, and remember it as my memory entwines the motion of making the art, the visuals of seeing the art and the auditory processing of my reading the words. This spread actually came out of me reading through the book a few times for a couple of nights, underlining key verses, trying to take in the whole of the book (it's only a short one - why not give it a go!) and grasp what it was the writer was so passionately saying. I was then talking about it with a friend, just sharing what I'd found exciting and challenging - when we find something exciting, we want to talk about it, and others pick up on that excitement too! My friend then actually wrote a song which grew out of one of the phrases I'd used in talking about it, and this art grew out of that song, in a sketchbook, which I then transferred over into my Bible. Particularly that phrase; "Let's give faith its fangs back"! The book of James is a challenge to each of us to live out our faith. To "be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves". To make sure that our faith in who Jesus is pervades every interaction we have with people and every decision we make. Faith and love and hope should be strong and powerful; they should be beacons in a world where despair and hate and doubt usually pervade; they should be the hand reaching out to someone's utter depth of need; and they should be a loud and strong proclamation of the good God who made all we see and treasures each person around us so intimately! If we don't live out our faith it becomes lame, tame and a joke. Let's give faith its fangs back and live like we actually believe what we profess to believe!
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I made this page in response to a service led by Rachel Lampard, vice-President of the Methodist Church 2016/17. I wanted to portray the way her service posed a challenge to respond; to respond with power and confidence and strength. That to do all of these things - to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God - require bravery and endeavour. (That's possibly my response to this passage more than hers, as I can't remember much of the service now; just the notes I wrote on the day: ACT JUSTLY: respond open-heartedly and physically to those in need; speak out against injustice LOVE MERCY: being friends with those in need - to love them sacrificially and know their situations and circumstances; love as God loves WALK HUMBLY: traveling with God - starting to see as he wants us to see; as we do the other two, we draw closer to God - and we are changed.) I do Bible journalling to get into the Word of God; to hear out of it and to feel from myself what my response might be. This passage requires so much of me! So much of me that I so often fall short of. And "fall short of it" is a nicer way of putting it, because often it's simply that I don't do it. Out of choice when I ignore those in need because it would be too much effort to help. Out of choice when I don't speak out about injustices, because I don't take the time to learn enough about them. Out of choice when I don't listen fully to people's stories or struggles, because I'm more interested in my own. Out of choice when I fail to love others despite God's love for me and for them. Out of choice when I decide someone or something is more important than someone or something else and don't see all of them as God sees them. And out of choice when I don't spend time with God, to grow in my relationship with him, to draw closer to him, and to be changed by him. I am a sinner. And when I see myself in comparison to the ideal presented in the Scripture, I realise it. And then I realise how much I need Jesus in my life; firstly because I realise I can never save myself, but secondly because he renews my strength and my drive and my passion to live like this! I can be brave because he is mighty, and I can be confident because he has power. That's what this page presents to me! The colours, the fist, the explosion, the confident flow of the text and the bold block text too. What do these verses look like to you? How do they speak into your life? What is your response?
At the start of this term (the term of my final university exams), I was directed to this verse by a Bible-reading plan entitled, 'The Lies of Busyness'. Psalm 39.6a says this, "We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing" (NLT). How did the writer of this Psalm, all those thousands and thousands of yeas ago, know so clearly what life would be like today?! I think this is one of my biggest fears when I think about the future: that all my busyness achieves nothing; that I don't make a difference to anyone; that I don't change or do anything. It's easy to think when each day is taken up with writing essay after essay on obscure topic after obscure topic! And to be honest, a lot of my busyness IS pointless! When I busy myself making more lists of what I need to do, or busy myself in procrastination, even when I busy myself so much with work that I neglect the people around me.
Busyness in and of itself is not a bad thing. I would hate it if I spent day after day doing nothing; I could always find something to busy myself with! "But busyness requires intention," as the Bible-reading plan so adequately put it. ... And then, after I'd painted on my shadows rushing around, and the busy dashes heading in every direction, ending in nothing, my eyes were drawn to the end of verse 7. "My hope is in you." (ESV). Sometimes I can't see what my busyness is headed for, but my hope and my intention is in God and therefore I will follow where he leads me and do what he challenges me to do. So I painted on a red dashed line. One which umm-ed and ahh-ed in curves and points, U-turns and spirals, but one which was drawn inexplicably along by the hope and light that comes only from God. MY PRAYER: Lord, amidst the busyness of this exam term, may my hope and the intention of all my actions be found in you. Guard me from pointless busyness and challenge me to live busy with a purpose; YOUR purpose. My hope IS in you. AMEN. |