This Time is Different

As I sat in my hotel room a few weeks ago with a balcony view overlooking two converging rivers on the eastern Carolina coast, I held my David study in my lap, and I thought, "I'm tired of doing Bible study just for the sake of doing Bible study." It was at that point that I determined to make it into something more. I decided to incorporate my study into something I have already been practicing for the last several months.

Since Thanksgiving, I've been getting up early and having tea with the Lord. For many mornings, this would include nothing more than just waiting on the sun to rise and then watching the birds as they came alive and fed at the feeders just outside my windows. It no doubt has been a time of sweet fellowship and presence.

It all started when I began celebrating Advent with my own private Advent wreath and candles. After Christmastide and with the beginning of Epiphany, I replaced the pine wreath and 4 candles with a colorful berry wreath, a carved "Jesus" cross my son brought back from Honduras, and one white candle -- for me, symbolizing Christ's presence. But as time developed, so did this sacred time; and now I light the candle each morning to say, "This time is different. This time is sacred."

And so as I sat in that hotel room, I raised my cup of tea to the heavens and belted a hearty "Cheers!" to the Lord and decided that I'm going to make this time of studying God's Word more than just a fill-in-in-the-blank experience. It's to be a place where friends meet. It's to be a sacred experience. After all, this is a sacred text -- not just an anthology of ancient writings; not just a tool to accomplish utilitarian purposes; not just to rein me in, tell me what to do, or coerce me into a way of thinking. It is to be a time to allow my heart and soul to be penetrated by an intimate word from God and to be captured by the Lover of my soul.

Maybe that's not such an ordinary moment after all....