a beautiful mess

Worship is only worship if it causes us to respond in both faith and action. -Ed Dobson

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seems like the latest “hot new thing” is bible reading plans. a word about “hot new things.” if we are not careful, those metaphorically very warm, very trendy things can very easily turn into very cold, static phrases offering no catalystic energy whatsoever: they have the potential, like most any thing in this world, to become religious. what can be a part of worship may very well become an idol.

of course, at its heart, this current trend to revisit ancient ways of engaging GOD’s words is a good thing for any follower of yeshua. there’s no doubt that he himself would have followed in the footsteps of his family/ancestors through the first covenant reading plan they still follow today. and no, i am not referring to the wildly entertaining act of throwing down at a wedding, though he surely did that as well – and maybe just as often.

and it’s with this line of thinking, the inherent good of revisiting ancient ways to engage GOD-at-his-word, that i throw a couple pennies into the communal blogging well. i offer up to you a “hot new thing” except that it’s actually pretty low-key, not very new at all, and should not really be designated a thing, though i suspect it has the makings of a very beautiful unfolding.

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about five years ago i was just thinking about what it would have really been like to walk beside yeshua as one of the twelve; what it would have felt like to hear him speak or see him laugh or share warm bread and rich wine.

and thus commenced a conversation with my self:

“well, we have the gospel accounts according to matthew, mark, luke, and john.”

“i know that. i am not an idiot.”

“that’s debatable. but, i mean, seriously, they were in the midst of it or lived and spoke with people who were in the midst of it. it was fresh and real and vivid to them.”

“yeah. and…”

“what if you spent time with yeshua with them. through them.”

“in case you forgot, i have read the gospel accounts. they are quite a good read.”

“true. but what if you, like, lived with them in it. and it became part of life itself: you would wake up with them – and walk with them – and it would become like second nature to be with them.”

“go on…”

“i will. think about it: they spent three years, give or take – probably take – as talmidim, enrolled in the travelling yeshiva of yeshua…what if, what IF you just did the same!?”

“three years? i have already been a follower for like…more than that.”

“right. but just what if you took a book (really, an account) a month – no set schedule of how many chapters or verses – i highly doubt many of the twelve knew all the plans for their days anyway – and read it with new eyes, and then start the second book the next month, etc. and repeat for three years!?”

“hmm. matthew in january; mark in february; luke in march; john in april; and then start back with matthew in may, repeat?”

“and then! repeat it again for an additional two years. so that would be each gospel account three times a year for a total of nine times per account in three years.”

“i can add.”

“but seriously. sounds good, right?”

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so. i began what was to become more than just a static thing: a real waking and sleeping with yeshua through the accounts of those who knew him and his followers best.

and then, about three years ago, i think, i made it public for the first time by sharing it with my youth community – i was a little scurred because of the lack of popular appeal that came with it: no clear boundaries within the broad framework compared with the almost entirely structured ones that are the norm, the long commitment versus many of the “quick” plans on the market, and the narrow scope of just four gospels as opposed to most plans focusing on much larger portions to be ingested.

anyways, i now share it with you. i am sure that this has been done before, somewhere, some place; hopefully by some sort of very cool monks or stranded prophetic women or something. who knows…

i have dubbed it simply, the disciple project. i don’t know, this whole thing may not appeal to you. i am just sharing this because i think there’s something of great substance to be found in this tool – after all, life is only found in yeshua, himself. but it’s a great tool, a supplement really.

right. so, should you feel drawn to start this journey, just know a couple of things.

it won’t make you perfect. i met matthew, mark, luke, and john many a morning as a broken man, a liar, a thief, or a hypocrite – sometimes all at the same time. but i also came to them many other times as a resurrected man with the breath of life moving freely through my soul, yea, even through my veins. and of course: it’s not really about the reading per se: it’s about being with the twelve in the boat on the lake with the rabbi and letting the waves sweep over and fearing for your life and seeing your hopeful life flash before your eyes and then screaming at yeshua and seeing him wipe the sleep from his eyes and speak in a previously unheard tone to the chaotic swells of a relatively little sea and then remembering that he didn’t call you to the middle of the lake to drown, but to the other side and so you relax your hands and breathe a little and then – right then – you remember it’s not about reading.

some days you’ll remember to read, except when you forget. the trick here is, there is no trick. as soon as you become enjoined with the twelve, you’ll realize, perhaps more clearly than ever before, that theirs is a story of forgetting and remembering, too. seems like israel knew something of this, maybe, i don’t know…

but what about good ole theological studyin!? yeah. there are times and places for cross-referencing, word study, historical lessons, and the like. just like there are perfectly normal times for consuming mass amounts of articles, podcasts, and blog entries regarding the many theories of lost. this “plan” is more like a living with than a studying about. it’s watching lost in the pitch black room with headphones on just so you can be as close to the mystery as possible – bless you damon lindelof! it’s like that. and fear not you intellectual types: the more you get to know yeshua and the twelve in the midst of the cities and the people, you will not be able to restrain yourself from going deeper – both in study, and in service. there again, worship is about faith and action: spirit and truth.

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Q/ what have you found to be a unique way to engage GOD-at-his-word in his word(s) (aka, the bible: the scriptures, the books)?

and. if you happen to think, hey, the disciple project sounds like something i would like to engage, drop me a line or a holla back or something and let me know how it goes; i would love to continue conversation on a larger scale about this particular way of walking with among the twelve…