NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

Day 16 - Chew on this

Scripture focus: How well God must like you— you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust— Without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people. God charts the road you take. The road they take is Skid Row. Psalm 1 The Message

Psalm 1 is a beautiful passage of scripture – as long as I don't pay full attention to its meaning. When I read it carefully, my body (appetites) and soul (emotions and personality) respond by becoming agitated and stressed out. The psalmist assumes that I don't hang out at Sin Saloon, slink along Dead-End Road or attend Smart-Mouth College. Although it is true that I don't hang out in Saloons, I confess that I do run down dead-end roads on a regular basis and I'm practically a tenured professor at Smart-Mouth College. Does this make me bad? Am I beyond repair? I desire to be like a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month. I love the images found in the book of Revelation, where it tells us that the streets of heaven are bordered by trees that bear a different delicious fruit every month – a virtual fruit of the month extravaganza, without having to plant different trees!

But I don't always experience life as tasty fruit; some days I feel more like a bad apple or a bruised kiwi. I don't always blossom; many days I wilt. I am without defense, and I am unfit for company – innocent and otherwise – on days when I am trying to get my own way all the time. God charts my road, but sometimes I thumb my nose at him and run down dark alleys. What does this mean for me? Am I doomed to a life of scarcity? I used to think so, until I started hanging out with some really awesome people who knew how to confess. I've discovered I'm not alone in how I experience daily life. My community has also guided me into a renewed view. My experience isn't necessarily reality. How I experience life is a pretty good clue to the state of my insides, but I discipline my body and soul to not be swept away into a world of appearances and faulty assumptions. How do I counter all that stinking thinking, feeling and perceiving? I growl. (Growl – hagah – Hebrew word for meditate) Eugene Peterson translates this same word as "chew on" – and that's an excellent translation.

Last night Pete spent the evening playing with Sammy, a cute little dog who allowed Pete to play fetch with her. She'd growl at him, shake her toy at him, lower it to the ground and dare him to try to take it. Sammy was meditating, chewing on, growling at her toy and her companion. This is exactly what we're supposed to be doing with God's word. We stare at it, chew on it, talk about it with friends, wrestle with the implications…we growl at God and his word. Ultimately, this activity requires that we trust in the power of words to penetrate our lives and create truth, beauty, and goodness in us. It's the kind of reading that alters our souls as it enters our blood. It is how we participate with God on his terms.

Recommended reading: Mark 7-9

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