Mar 16 2021 Day 45 Deuteronomy 9:1–12:32

[W]hat does the L ORD your God require of you? Only to fear the L ORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the L ORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the L ORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.

Moses is continuing his farewell tour. Today he’s recapped the people’s journey – wandering, getting ten commandments, sinning, being the object of God’s wrath, more wandering, and finally they’re about to cross into the promised land. This fragment for reflection is similar to the fragment from yesterday, loving God with our whole heart and soul and might, because it’s basically a recap of yesterday’s reading.

Today’s reflection is from Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, a modern translation of scripture. His reflection focuses on what he recommends as the five things we must do to live a spiritual life. First, discover what scripture says about the spiritual life, and immerse yourself in that. Next, shun spirituality that doesn’t require commitment. Then embrace friends of faith wherever you find them. Next, return to your own home and explore further your own tradition. Finally, look for wise guides and leaders.

He argues that our Christian tradition with 4,000 years of history and wisdom has more to teach us than modern day spiritual gurus.

I am grateful for his simple roadmap of how to grow in spirituality. I especially appreciate the idea that becoming more spiritual, or at least feeling like I am requires commitment. Reading a book about spirituality doesn’t do nearly as much for me as just the daily slog through the bible, and sometimes it definitely feels like a slog. And while some newer spirituality gurus may have something that strikes a chord with me, it is only in returning to my roots that I can put it in context and grow.

I’ve been a part of groups of people of faith from various traditions. And I deeply appreciate their wisdom, and insight. Their ways don’t make me want to abandon my ways, but rather makes me want to double-down on my ways. My roots are deep, and strong. My ways and my roots aren’t the only way. But they are my way. To know that means I won’t be tempted to try every flavor of spirituality, only to create a shallow, ineffective root system.

Today, I’m also struck by the very different way my writing went, compared to yesterday, when the scripture itself was largely the same. What differed was the accompanying reflection. Both reflections point to and rely on the underlying scripture, and I’m intrigued that in two days, I’ve gone in two very different directions. This to me speaks of the depth of scripture. We can read it in different seasons of our life and get different messages from it. Or even on different days.

This morning, I’m thinking about how I might widen my network of wise spiritual perspectives, so that I can hear and reflect on their path, and strengthen mine at the same time.