Saturday, November 18, 2023

How Are You Walking?

Greetings Again Readers!

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time for the days are evil.”  Ephesians 5:15-16

Another surprise of this “Pax season” came with the simple trimming up of my daily rhythms to accommodate all the walks.  That included a closer look at the overall scheduling, plus the re-ordering of priorities and details.  I love order anyway, but this new discipline brought an unexpected new freedom…and joy!  I’m smiling as I write this because one of my neighbors asked if I had ever been in the military.  She marveled at being able to almost set her own clock as she observed Pax and I maintaining our new schedule. 

However, the greatest delight came with new opportunities for sim lev and halakh. You see, with my Western mindset I often found myself reading Scripture as an intellectual, almost academic pursuit.  But the Eastern way: “…is to sim lev, to set Scripture upon your heart, over and over again, so much so that it can’t help but seep into your heart—to consume the Scripture so much that it becomes who you are.”*  Then teaching would illustrate how the Scripture would be walked out halakh.  Jesus often did this using parables.  And Jesus and His disciples walked everywhere!  (You might want to pause here and glance at a blog posted below on Monday, June 8, 2020.)

That, was the ultimate gift the Lord deposited into this season.  He used Pax to carve out precious, sacred space and time for me to walk in His sim lev Presence.  My morning devotions stuck with me in a new way because I was revisiting them over and over again during each walk - halakh.  It was a discipline that allowed God’s Word to seep down into the concrete particulars of my life…to become who I am.  Truly it was the best use of my time and it actually was God’s gift to me using Miss Pax.

Dear friends, how are you approaching Scripture…intellectually or with sim lev?  And…how are you ordering your time?  Have you done a mini-inventory lately?  Linked to this blog (and in the side bar) are two helps to get you started:  “Seize the Time” and “Ten Keys to Peace.”

"Seize the Time"

"Ten Keys to Peace"

Blessed halakh!

Carolyn 

*McLelland, Kristi, “Jesus & Women: In The First Century and Now”, Lifeway Press, Tennessee, 2022.

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