Reflections
Most everyone thinks about reflections this time of year. We were reflecting on our year together in the Chronological Bible this morning. This has been a year of many significant and life changing understandings for us through the reading of God’s Word.
The end of any study for us is always bittersweet. While we are happy that we have completed a journey together, we are sad that the journey has come to an end. Within minutes of thinking those thoughts this morning, I opened up an email from Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Here is part of what he wrote.
“…the best way to envision our lives is as a spiral. When a birthday, a holyday, or an anniversary comes around again, we are indeed in the same station that we visited twelve months ago, however we are one floor up. We travel up a spiral and each waypoint we reach on the annual spiral cycle is multi-leveled.”
Another thought of Rabbi Daniel was that we should never…“view ourselves as actually concluding any of life’s challenges. For instance, on the Jewish holyday Simchat Torah, the final portion of the Pentateuch is read. Once the closing words of Deuteronomy “…all the great and awesome deeds which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel” are read, we do not then close the scroll and pat ourselves on the back. No, we immediately roll the scroll back to the beginning and continue reading the opening words of Genesis, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” ”
This would be our prayer for all of us in 2009. Go back to the beginning of the “scroll” and continue reading. According to Rabbi Daniel…
“Look back and see that you worked hard and are not in exactly the same place you were a year ago. Now look forward and see that you have at least the same amount of work ahead of you. You are not done. And, as long as you are alive, you don’t want to be done.”
SiYUM
(Hebrew word for conclusion)
We have all concluded another spiral on our journey upward.
Let’s continue the journey.
Most everyone thinks about reflections this time of year. We were reflecting on our year together in the Chronological Bible this morning. This has been a year of many significant and life changing understandings for us through the reading of God’s Word.
The end of any study for us is always bittersweet. While we are happy that we have completed a journey together, we are sad that the journey has come to an end. Within minutes of thinking those thoughts this morning, I opened up an email from Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Here is part of what he wrote.
“…the best way to envision our lives is as a spiral. When a birthday, a holyday, or an anniversary comes around again, we are indeed in the same station that we visited twelve months ago, however we are one floor up. We travel up a spiral and each waypoint we reach on the annual spiral cycle is multi-leveled.”
Another thought of Rabbi Daniel was that we should never…“view ourselves as actually concluding any of life’s challenges. For instance, on the Jewish holyday Simchat Torah, the final portion of the Pentateuch is read. Once the closing words of Deuteronomy “…all the great and awesome deeds which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel” are read, we do not then close the scroll and pat ourselves on the back. No, we immediately roll the scroll back to the beginning and continue reading the opening words of Genesis, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” ”
This would be our prayer for all of us in 2009. Go back to the beginning of the “scroll” and continue reading. According to Rabbi Daniel…
“Look back and see that you worked hard and are not in exactly the same place you were a year ago. Now look forward and see that you have at least the same amount of work ahead of you. You are not done. And, as long as you are alive, you don’t want to be done.”
SiYUM
(Hebrew word for conclusion)
We have all concluded another spiral on our journey upward.
Let’s continue the journey.
1 comment:
Just spent a couple of hours this morning reflecting on the insights we received through His Word in 2008 and all of the blessings He has bestowed on us. Interesting that the closer we walk with Him, the definition of blessing changes. What the world would consider blessing we often don't see it as a blessing, and what we consider a blessing many times looks to the world like a curse of suffering and hardship. We are now citizens of a new kingdom, let us live our lives as worthy ambassadors to a lost and dying world.
I began again in Genesis this morning and found some incredible insights in the first two chapters, especially tied to Psalm 1. God's word is alive and active, and He is always ready to show us new insights if we take the time to be with Him and read His Word. Looking forward to His insights in 2009
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