I’ve been pondering growth recently. Sometimes I find that I’ve growth slowly and steadily over the course of the year, with lots of small changes adding up to a significant end result. Then there are times where things feel stagnant for a long time, and then, in a sudden turn of events, there is a dramatic shift and there is a ton of growth in like three weeks.
I find myself most recently connecting with the latter. I maybe wasn’t stagnant before, but the last two months have been so incredibly transformative that it makes the small changes of before feel like nothing.
This trip I took was a mixture of so many things in one that it affected many different parts of my life. It had travel, which taught me a lot about independence and culture. It had living in community, which taught me a lot about myself and other people and how to navigate relationships in a close space. It also had a lot of rich spiritual food. On regular days, we spent four hours a day reading the Bible out loud and discussing it as a group.
We read the entire New Testament together, and parts of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Psalms and Job, and the entirety of Ruth, Esther, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes.
There is something about being able to have free discussion in a community about Scripture that really enhances and enriches the reading experience. You get to hear about things you might not have noticed on your own, and wrestle through hard passages together. You might not all agree, but you can hear each other’s opinions and decide for yourself what you think about things.
Reflection on this concept is inspiring Bible Study ideas. I find it too easy to disregard the idea of a Bible Study because I’m not an expert. Well, neither are any of the people I would be having said Bible Study with! Reading and discussing can have such an impact while being very accessible.
I suppose the encouragement for this week is to read your Bible. This sounds cliché, but there is some truth to it. And not just reading alone, but finding a community to read in. The insights you stumble upon listening to the Word or reading it aloud are precious.
P.S. I just realized I hit exactly a year of Secretary’s Corners! Thanks for this opportunity every week!
