A week ago yesterday, my honey and I had the opportunity to attend the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead stadium.

It was loud.

It was cold.

It was fun … until the end when the home team lost. This is NOT a post about that loss.

After walking with the crowds to our car, and waiting to exit the parking lot, our exit took us a different way than expected. A way we had not traveled before.

No problem, right. We have google maps.

Except when we don’t.

(For some reason our cell service was spotty, even with three out of four bars.)

So, we began by just following the crowd – I can hear my parents telling me that is not a good idea. I probably told my own kids that – oops. But we really didn’t have a choice. (That excuse would not have worked with Big Charlie).

Finally, the map in my app loaded. Hooray! But, it still wouldn’t let me use it to find the way home (silly “poor signal”). Boo! So what did I do?

I read the map! Crazy, right! Who does that?

(Besides Dora – is she even still around?)

Well, I love reading maps. As a child on family road trips, I always enjoyed having a map to follow. Living overseas after college – I had to be able to use a map to get around my city. When I worked at Princeton University, I had to use a map to get from Richardson, TX to Princeton, NJ. I also drove from NJ to Daytona Beach, FL to work with students one summer – I had to have a map to plan my stops and to get to where I needed to be.

So, after that tragic Chiefs overtime loss (oh yeah, I am not writing about that), I read the map to get us to the highway we knew would take us home. It was an adventure – right up my alley.

I do think people should be map “literate” – have the basic ability to read a map. However, as I thought about our map adventure, it made me think of something else I think people should be able to read – the Bible.

I grew up going to Bible teaching churches, yet I was not taught how to read the Bible. I was encouraged to read my Bible but not really taught how to do it.

I think there is an assumption that if a person can read, they can read the Bible. Well, yes and no. Yes, a person who is able to read can read the words in the Bible. However, just reading the words does not equal knowing and understanding the Bible. True literacy is more than just reading; it is reading with understanding. I know how to read Spanish (I have the capacity to pronounce the words correctly), yet I would not understand the majority of what I read. This is my simplistic explanation of what it might look like to be Biblically illiterate. From my own personal experience and observation, I think many church attenders and followers of Christ are just that – Biblically illiterate.

I realize that a number of times, I have been guilty of encouraging people to “get into the Word” without teaching them how. For that I am sorry. I have mentioned more than once on this site the importance of reading God’s Word – and I will continue to do so.

The Bible is a gift. God reveals Himself to us in it. To know Him, we have to read His word – we have to read it rightly, in context.

So,

I want to point you to a resource to help you in the reading of scripture. Our church has a series on their blog called “Feasting on the Word.” This ongoing series speaks to the importance of Biblical Literacy, walks the reader through an outline of the Bible, and then speaks to how we should read different genres in God’s Word. My explanation falls short of how beneficial I believe this series to be, so I want to encourage you to take some time and begin reading through it. The first post in the series can be found here.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

 

 

Goals give me hives!

This has been my mantra for much of my life – even before I realized it and put it into words. I married a wonderful man who thinks in terms of 1, 3, and 5-year goals. I am amazed how he patiently walks with  me through life. I have learned that some type of goals are beneficial and help me accomplish things, so why the aversion to them?

I have a fear of failure.

If you never verbalize or put a goal in writing, you can’t fail to reach it, right? I have been good at starting things but not always good in the follow through.

“a joyful adventure” is a perfect example of this tendency. I started posting to this blog a year ago. (My first post was on failure – how appropriate.) I posted pretty consistently for a while, then posted once a month, and totally failed to post anything in November and December. Ugh! And, it wasn’t because I didn’t have ideas or things on my heart; I just didn’t sit down and do it.

And each week I didn’t post anything made it that much more difficult to sit down and post. I could have just moved on to “the next thing” (whatever that is), but I just couldn’t. I knew that I needed to keep writing – not for anyone who happens to read these posts. I needed to keep writing for me, for my growth, and for the glory of the One who created me.

I also knew that I needed to set some kind of goals (gasp – where is the Benadryl?) to motivate me in 2019 – relating to this blog, and relating to life in general.

Relating to “a joyful adventure” – I will post at least two times per month in 2019. You might hear from me more, but you will at least hear from me twice a month.

Relating to life in general – I am going to be more intentional in my daily life, my relationships, my school work, and in my walk with God. That may seem a bit general, and it is. How I intentionally live will look differently than how you do it. God may place specific things on my heart that He has not placed on yours. It will be fun to see exactly how He does it – it will be an adventure!

As I wrestled with my first post after being absent for a few months (3 since my last post) I saw how anti-gospel my fear of failure is. Believing my performance gives me significance or value is believing a lie. Believing that I can do anything on my own to gain God’s favor is a lie. My standing before God is not based on my worth (or performance) but on the work of Christ. 

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:4-5)

I am starting this year thankful for God’s grace in saving me.

I am starting this year fighting the lies that my heart tends to buy.

I am starting this year excited for the joyful adventure God has for me in 2019.

Join me in this joyful adventure!