Outwitting Wormwood

Featured Entry- The Spread

Posted on 04. May, 2009 by Jeremy in Lectio Divina Defined, Meditation

We have a saying in the South, well, I don’t really say it, but I’ve heard it hundreds of times. It has to do with food and come to think of it, most of our sayings have to do with food. It goes something like this-“You need to eat something that will stick to your bones.” If I’ve heard it once…

I’ve noticed that when you eat breakfast there are two basic options. For years, if I ate breakfast at all, I would grab something and go. It was always something like a breakfast bar, a bagel, a left-over Krispy Kreme donut, a granola bar or a honeybun- one of my favorites. The problem with these is that they just don’t last. A Krispy Kreme donut gets into your system for about an hour sending a sugar surge just before you kamikaze crash into the middle of the morning. But there is another option. Have you ever had “the spread”? You know, eggs and bacon, hashbrown casserole and sausage, biscuits and tomato gravy, grits and lots of butter with a gigantic glass of whole milk- now that’s “the spread”. And that “will stick to your bones.” In fact, an entire sub-meal category has been created called brunch because no one should ever eat “the spread” and haphazardly rush into lunch. It will do for two meals.

It seems that the way many of us “do devotions” is very similar to how we eat breakfast. We read a section of scripture, pray through a grocery list of needs and start our day. And there is no connection between the devotional life and the daily life. The truth is that it’s not completely our fault. We’ve been led astray by genuinely-good intentioned leaders and writers. Read these chapters and you’ll get through the bible in one year. Pray this acrostic and you’ll cover all the topics. But there is a disconnect.

Lucky for us, there is a solution. It’s not just another quick-fix method, but rather ancient practices that are time-tested exercises that do exactly what our routines seem to lack. They stick to our bones. One of the things that I love the most about them is that they just work. I don’t how they work, but they do. They seem to interweave a thread between the devotional life and the daily life. There is an interconnectedness between my connection with God and my daily outflow. They spark an awareness of the Spirit that once experienced is impossible to manufacture. I love all of the books that are so easily available on spiritual disciplines. They urge us to pray, study, meditate and fast. For all of you out there that say, “I get that, so how do I do it?”, this is for you. In this blog, I would like to spend some time talking about ancient practices and practical exercises that have been established for hundreds of years that just work. And most importantly, they stick to your bones.

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