my voice, his voice
i have an amazing husband, let me just tell you. we got home from church today and i told him what i would really like to do is go to starbucks and write for a bit because i haven't had much of a chance to recently. and he said "ok, when would you like to go?" just like that. no worries, no questions.
hence, i am here at starbucks pecking away on my keyboard and enjoying my chai tea latte without my beautiful babes vying for my attention.
i desperately wanted to write today because i have an ever growing list of writing prompts and subjects milling around inside of my head, and i'm afraid i'll forget every single thing i want to say about all of them if i don't start getting them down soon.
all that to say that this morning in the midst of our pastor's sermon on elijah he mentioned how God's word is the primary way that God speaks to us. and it struck me in a different way than it ever had before. the bible is God's voice.
not so strange, right? or maybe very strange depending on your perspective. but what i mean is this - i never really thought about the bible being God's voice. his word, sure, but not his voice.
the bible was written by prophets and disciples and kings. but if i really believe it was divinely inspired then the bible is also the very voice of God.
just like [okay, maybe not just like] when i write i hope that my voice comes through the page or the screen. when i write it's a way of creating something that travels through time and remains even after i'm no longer in the same state or place or potentially even here at all.
my writing is a piece of me. it doesn't encompass all of me, but it is a piece of me that i leave behind. and i hope that in that way it is a clear voice, a clear piece.
but i never thought about God's word that way. i have thought that about other authors and other essays and other stories. i have thought that about plenty of blog posts and other such writings, but never about the bible.
i think it every time i read back through my old journals, or some old blog posts. i think it every single time i read a book by anne lamott, or writing down the bones by natalie goldberg. i thought of it for every page that i read of ernest hemingway's a moveable feast. but never about the bible.
in retrospect it seems asinine and maybe even a little crazy that this is the case since i've been a christian for quite a while now, but i'm more than a little interested to see how it changes my perspective when i read the bible from here on out. when i read the voice of God spoken all of those generations ago to people who were still just people in a different time and place than now.
it changes how i think of it even in this moment because it is not so far-fetched for me to think about my voice in my writings still being my voice even if someone reads what i've written years and years from now. granted i don't really expect any of my writings to last that long, but if they do... it will still be me. even after i'm long gone.
granted, God is still around. and he always will be, but that doesn't negate the fact that his word from forever and a day ago is still his word, and still his voice, and it still speaks. and even though that can seem kind of off and crazy at times, i believe that God is God, and so he can, in his God-ness, use his word written thousands of years ago in a different time and place, to speak to me now. exactly where i am. exactly in the circumstances i'm in.
i think it's somewhat amusing that plenty of people find solace and hear and understand and take away a whole heck of a lot from great works of authors written a long, long time ago. but some of these people also think that God could not use his word to do the same thing for us.
in a strange sort of way i didn't find their perspective all that unbelievable before now. sure i thought God could speak through his word, but somehow thinking of it as his voice makes it present, not past.
but he is God after all. and all truth is his truth. and he can use that truth to speak whenever he wants. in the past, in the present, in the future.
hence, i am here at starbucks pecking away on my keyboard and enjoying my chai tea latte without my beautiful babes vying for my attention.
i desperately wanted to write today because i have an ever growing list of writing prompts and subjects milling around inside of my head, and i'm afraid i'll forget every single thing i want to say about all of them if i don't start getting them down soon.
all that to say that this morning in the midst of our pastor's sermon on elijah he mentioned how God's word is the primary way that God speaks to us. and it struck me in a different way than it ever had before. the bible is God's voice.
not so strange, right? or maybe very strange depending on your perspective. but what i mean is this - i never really thought about the bible being God's voice. his word, sure, but not his voice.
the bible was written by prophets and disciples and kings. but if i really believe it was divinely inspired then the bible is also the very voice of God.
just like [okay, maybe not just like] when i write i hope that my voice comes through the page or the screen. when i write it's a way of creating something that travels through time and remains even after i'm no longer in the same state or place or potentially even here at all.
my writing is a piece of me. it doesn't encompass all of me, but it is a piece of me that i leave behind. and i hope that in that way it is a clear voice, a clear piece.
but i never thought about God's word that way. i have thought that about other authors and other essays and other stories. i have thought that about plenty of blog posts and other such writings, but never about the bible.
i think it every time i read back through my old journals, or some old blog posts. i think it every single time i read a book by anne lamott, or writing down the bones by natalie goldberg. i thought of it for every page that i read of ernest hemingway's a moveable feast. but never about the bible.
in retrospect it seems asinine and maybe even a little crazy that this is the case since i've been a christian for quite a while now, but i'm more than a little interested to see how it changes my perspective when i read the bible from here on out. when i read the voice of God spoken all of those generations ago to people who were still just people in a different time and place than now.
it changes how i think of it even in this moment because it is not so far-fetched for me to think about my voice in my writings still being my voice even if someone reads what i've written years and years from now. granted i don't really expect any of my writings to last that long, but if they do... it will still be me. even after i'm long gone.
granted, God is still around. and he always will be, but that doesn't negate the fact that his word from forever and a day ago is still his word, and still his voice, and it still speaks. and even though that can seem kind of off and crazy at times, i believe that God is God, and so he can, in his God-ness, use his word written thousands of years ago in a different time and place, to speak to me now. exactly where i am. exactly in the circumstances i'm in.
i think it's somewhat amusing that plenty of people find solace and hear and understand and take away a whole heck of a lot from great works of authors written a long, long time ago. but some of these people also think that God could not use his word to do the same thing for us.
in a strange sort of way i didn't find their perspective all that unbelievable before now. sure i thought God could speak through his word, but somehow thinking of it as his voice makes it present, not past.
but he is God after all. and all truth is his truth. and he can use that truth to speak whenever he wants. in the past, in the present, in the future.
xoxo
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