On Comfort and Letters

2 Corinthians 1-3

This site is a lot of things for me. It is a place to basically type out my prayers to You. It has been a place for me to study the Scripture with You. It has been a place for me to write about You. My reading schedule this year through Scripture hasn't been very helpful, and so today we're going to change it a little bit. I've been studying by genres of Biblical literature, but looking at a different genre each, going through a rotation. It's just one that I found on the internet, but the problem is that I have very little continuity. So it's hard to connect from day to day. So I'm reading a lot of different Scriptures but feeling like the narrative is getting lost.

Today I'm going to change a bit and focus on one genre until I finish it. The first genre I'm going to look into is the Epistles. There is a reason too. I want to see the way that Paul, James, Peter, and others talked to the early churches. Since I'm involved in a young church, that needs much encouragement at times, maybe some direction as well, how did they do it and what were they concerned about. Okay, enough chronicling of purpose, off we go!

Two things strike me today about this Scripture, one is the idea of comfort and the other is the concept of being a letter.

First, comfort. I've been feeling lately a lack of comfort, a life full of stress, and I've been looking everywhere for affirmation. I've talked to You about this before, and You were so good as to remind me that "I am Your son, You are well pleased." At times, however, I am stubborn in my search for human validation. I get some, sometimes, but far less consistently than if I would count on You. Paul though, praises You as the God of all compassion and comfort, who comforts us in our troubles. And then that comfort can be extended from us to others.

So what I need is continual compassion and comfort in order to lead Exodus. The pressure has become amazing, and what I've noticed is that I have less and less comfort and compassion to give to others. Actually, I have less and less capacity for relationship in general. That has really been irking me, Lord, since relationship is the complete reason of starting Exodus. I need that real sense of Your comfort then, of our relationship, so that I can extend it to others. Please, help remind me throughout the day.

Secondly, there is the idea of being a letter. All of Exodus is a letter, wide open for others to read. What do people read there on a regular basis? We would like people to read: Deliverance, Community, Knowledge, and Land. And I think that has been evident to some. I think GG would read Deliverance. I think that the families we helped with unemployment would read Deliverance. I think that some of us might read Community. Knowledge, I'm not sure. I think most of us see that is too hard right now. It's difficult to keep the balance for sure. And as for the whole cycle, DCKL, I don't think it could be read in its entirety through our community. Plus, I think there are other distracting and demoralizing things that others would read in us. Or at least that when I "open the book" that is Exodus, I read some things I'd rather not.

How can I lead so that we all read the same way? Rejoicing in the way You have lived the DCKL for us so that we can live the DCKL for others, that is what I want our community to say. Comfort me in my feelings of shortcoming this morning, and let this be a place of renewal and new beginning, instead of just a mournful place.

I love You, and thanks for the listening ear. Now, speak to me, speak through me. My Lord, Amen.