70 Faces

The ancient rabbis used to say that the Torah (the Old Testament) was like a gem with 70 faces.

The idea behind it was that, just as you can turn a diamond over and over in your hand and see new details with each turn, so a person can also read the Bible over and over and with each reading gain new perspectives and insights into God.

It is why in Hebrews, the Bible is described as “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit.” We read it and it also reads us.

So…I thought I would test out this idea.

I decided to read the same chapter (Romans 12) for a month and see what would happen.  Each morning I read it through and every time, every single time it seemed to grab ahold of me with new meaning, insights and grace.  Words that I had read for weeks took on new meaning each day.

I wrote a lot of notes from the experience and want to share some highlights.  I feel like it might help someone.  I know it changed me.

-Joel

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To Start out, let’s all read Romans 12 (read the whole thing, you won’t regret it…)

1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

4-6 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

6-8 If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11-13 Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

17-19 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

20-21 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

(The Message)

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It just settles you down reading it, doesn’t it?

What stood out to me today was that opening line “Take your every day life…”

We all have groups of friends.

We have friends from work, from class, friends that you hang out with as couples, single friends, that one friend, friends your spouse never wants to willingly spend time with, friends you can’t remember why they are there but it’s been so long that there must have been a reason…

The temptation is to take God and paint Him the same way.  To take God and fit him into a group we associate with.  To have Him be a part, but not the whole of our lives.

But God is not content to stay a solo project.  God never meant for the totality of His being and beauty to fit neatly into a facet of our lives like a project for our work, a weekend hobby or who we talk to once in a while when everyone else is asleep.

No.  Take your whole, complete life and offer it up.

It’s not just a hard thing, it’s impossible.

There is no clean way to do it.

It involves a continual, daily opening up of ourselves and letting more and more of God’s light into our lives.

It means that we take where we sit, how we drive, our work spaces, our dinner tables, what we use our data for on our phones, the checkout line, our favorite restaurant, the beer section of our fridge, bath time for our kids, that red light at the intersection, our walk to the printer at work, the meetings we are in, our Instagram feeds, our religious activities or lack of, where we look at the gym, and place it all before God.

Daily handing to God as much of our lives as we know how and seeing what changes.

That is being a disciple.

That is our journey.