Pheasant-Hunting with a Pen & Author in Turkey

Stabbing in the black plastic fork, I pulled it back. Speared green spinach leaves, tangy apple squares, and salty slivers of Swiss cheese dangled haphazardly for a moment. Self-consciously helping a few stray spinach stems back into my mouth, I pulled the Bible closer with my other hand.

Photo Credit: Flickr User K. Hurley, Creative Commons cc license

Paul, one of the authors of the Bible, had penned words from ancient Turkey. Their poetic beauty and powerful life-changing truths grabbed me, yet I found myself stopping to read and re-read them.

Do Bible sections trip you up sometimes too? Paul's long sentences drip with parenthetical clauses and commas. I find myself tracking subject-verb trails like a pheasant hunter or an editor with a red pen. As the words-lover in me grows and stretches taller each year, I discover that my method of studying and learning has changed too.

Armed with pens, colored pencils, and endless notebooks, I've learned that writing out Paul's sentences and diagramming them reveals new beauty and understanding to me. Dissecting his subjects, verbs, prepositions, and clauses, I suddenly see his passages flood with clearer meaning. Patterns and repeated words pop out. Joy pours in. The words hum with intensity, and my eyes trace and re-trace the lines. "Wow, look at this!" I point to friends and family nearby.

Today I diagrammed four verses from the book named after the Turkish city of Ephesus. Sentences by a Roman Jew, imbued with the Creator's Spirit, sizzled excitement and truth to my European-American heart. Grab your plate and join me?

I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power
through his Spirit in your inner being, 
so that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

And I pray that you, 
being rooted and established in love,
may have power, 
together with all the saints, 
to grasp
          How WIDE
          and LONG
          and HIGH
          and DEEP
is the love of Christ,

and to know
this love that surpasses knowledge 
--that you may be filled
to the measure
of all the fullness of God.                              (Ephesians 3:16-19)


What have you been snagging for quick easy lunches? And where have you been reading lately? (Those in email can click here to join the conversations.)

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Naked Trees Scrape the Horizon

Navy blue light creeps higher in the sky, allowing naked trees to scrape the horizon. Hot coffee in morning twilight, and my three year old son’s truck noises get progressively louder. For the sake of sleepers, I shush him. 

Earlier this week, my peace was eroded as well. It wasn’t the noise – that I was used to with three kids! It was internally. Two weeks ago, I resigned from a part-time job where I had served for thirteen years. It was the right decision so I could have more time with my kids and homeschooling, and we felt peace about it. On Tuesday, though, the reality of it sunk in. Whew, what had I done?! Given up a stable job? 

Grabbing my Bible, journal, and a freshly-brewed cup of hot coffee, I pulled up the kitchen chair to sit at my Abba Father’s feet. “Will you meet with me here today in your word? Will you bring fresh peace for me, Lord?” 

Here’s the kicker. Poor God. For my Bible reading I am in Isaiah, which I am loving, but the chapter I was about to start was Isaiah 28, about judgment coming on wicked kings. Now without bending the original intent of the text, how was he going to bring peace to his worried child at a kitchen table in 2011? 

The story pulled me in. God, the master Writer, wove in poetry, prophecy, play on words, historical accounts, and warnings in truth.  He told his people that he was going to rise up dramatically, supernaturally, citing examples in the past where he did miraculous things, fighting their battles in ways that only he could. The Storyteller described fields that were churned and turned upside down, plowed, threshed, plowed under again – ripping up the old, preparing for the new. The Farmer planted, waited and then threshed anew. Some crops only came through rough threshing techniques, but there was fruit after the hard work. Wrapping up the chapter and description, he spoke: “All this comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.” 

My pen scraped across lined paper, responding to him. I wrote and talked to Him, wondering, pondering, praying. Whatever God is speaking to you or me, know this. He does speak, he does bring peace, and his character is to be trusted, throughout the centuries and ages. 

What about you? Where have you been reading in God’s word lately? 

The winner of Kimberly Rae’s “Stolen Woman” book giveaway is Susan Panzica@Eternity Cafe. Susan, please email me with your address so I can mail this to you.