My Bible, The Velveteen Rabbit and Becoming Real

Do you have a favorite Bible? We have countless Bible on our bookshelves—different translations, multiple copies of the same translation, different binding and covers, and an array of colors and styles. But I have a favorite.

In fact, I’ve written about it before. Last year in Share the Music, I wrote: I love my Bible…. This Bible, my red 1983 NIV, with its frayed spine and peeling cover, is my favorite. It is marked with pen, pencil, colored pencil and maybe even crayon. It is stained with tears and coffee. There are sermon dates and minister’s names scribbled in the margins….

Often when I think about certain scriptures, I can visualize where they are in this Bible, where the verse falls on the page. I’m so familiar with this particular Bible that I really don’t want to choose another when it comes time to study or read. This Bible is my friend. I’ve had it for over 30 years. It is one of my most prized possessions. For a long time, I put the dates that passages were used in sermons or teaching in the margins. My momma did that, too. She, too, used the same Bible for many, many years. It actually became a timeline for her spiritual journey. I remember leafing through her Bible after she died, noting the passages that had been preached on over and over again. Pastor’s names were scribbled in the margins, and now I find myself wishing I had kept up that tradition for as long as she did.

Perhaps the funniest thing I have written in my Bible is an entry made in 1990. It is written above Luke 10:25 and underneath the heading “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” I have neatly penciled in—Seth Johnson The Nice American VBS 1990. Apparently that year at VBS many of the kids including Seth, who was almost 4, thought that the Bible story about the helpful and kind Samaritan was actually about a "nice American." As a person who worked with kids, I wanted to remember that. Still cracks me up.

I am thankful for my Bible. The way it feels in my hands, and the way it feeds my soul and shapes my life. For 30 years I’ve touched its pages and read the words, but there are so many things yet to learn, countless mysteries to uncover, deep truths to apply, and abundant beauties to discover. I am challenged by that thought and encouraged by it as well. “For the word of God is living and active.” (Hebrews 4:12, NIV). Praise God!

Last year, my daughter Susanna helped a friend pick out and purchase her very first Bible. Sitting in my living room, I watched two strong young women hold their Bibles in their hands, caressing the covers as they talked about how much they loved their Bibles. I watched the first-time owner carefully turn the pages, and I smiled with joy as she pressed her face into the pages to take in its smell. And I’m praying that her love affair with this book only grows deeper and that the powerful fragrance of the Word of God will always be a part of her life.

My heart nearly burst when Susanna went to the bookshelf and searched for the Bible storybook that was her first Bible. She is loaning it out for a while, so that her friend can meet the heroes of Scripture and have a foundation and framework to begin working with as she reads her new Bible. Not everyone grows up having heard the stories of the Bible repeatedly. There are those who do not know the stories of Joseph, Abraham, Noah, Peter, Paul, Deborah, Sarah, or Rachel.

Thank You, Lord, for that reminder, and thank You that there are still those who love Your Word and want to know it. There will probably be a day soon when I will have to make the dreaded trek to the Christian bookstore in search of a new daily Bible. I think about it with trepidation. But until then, and even after, I’m hanging on this this one for my very life, and I’m going to keep loving the words right off the pages.

A passage from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams applies to me and my Bible: “Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you. Sometimes it hurts, but when you are Real you don’t mind being hurt. It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time….Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. Once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”

You see, my Bible may be “loose in the joints and very shabby,” but I’m becoming more real.

Do you have a favorite Bible? How are you becoming more real?

Silly Band Bracelet

It all started with a silly band. You know those flimsy, rubber band bracelets for kids? It started with that. Mine was blue and shaped like a star. It was important.

Weekly devotions during the teacher’s meetings at my school are interesting. Let’s face it when you’ve walked with the Lord a long time, those kinds of things can be a struggle—at least for me. Heard it. Read it. Saw it. Same old, same old. I love the mornings when the speaker decides to put aside any thought of trying to impress us with some new theological insight or an interesting take on scripture and just tell us stories of how God worked in their lives at a particular time, in a particular way. Their personal stories aren’t things I’ve heard before. They are fresh. They are exciting. They move me.

So 21 days before Easter Sunday this year, one of the teachers shared the story of a group of friends who set out to go 30 days without complaining. To help them with this, they wore a bracelet. Each time they complained ,they physically moved the bracelet to the other arm—and started the count over. The story goes that at the beginning the bracelets moved back and forth from wrist to wrist fairly quickly. The teacher's challenge to us that day—as she passed out a silly band bracelet to each of us—was wear the bracelet and try to go for 21 days—until Resurrection Sunday—without complaining.

I took my blue star and promptly shoved it on my left wrist. I’m always up for a good challenge. Don’t complain. No big deal. I have will power. I have control. Not! Funny thing about an adult wearing a blue star silly band bracelet? Your high school students will ask you about it. So I got to share the story and my challenge with them. Then you know what they had the audacity to do? They held me accountable. 

One morning, before class started, a pop-culture topic came up, and I weighed in. I let the full force of my opinion loose in no uncertain terms. After what could only be described as a volcano of words, molten opinion and critical ash, one of my students politely pointed out that I should probably move my bracelet to the other wrist. Busted! So I did. I moved the bracelet. It had been on my left arm for several days. Move the bracelet. Start the count over.

Can I just tell you how hard it is not to complain? (That was a complaint about complaining!) I even found myself redefining “complaining.” I seriously had these conversations in my head, “It’s not complaining if I’m just stating the facts of what happened, is it?” Real answer? Sometimes, even the facts are a way to complain. But when I made it days in a row without having to move my bracelet, I was more at peace and more full of joy than other days. Did things happen that were perhaps worthy of my voicing a complaint? Absolutely! But the calm and peace that accompanied not giving voice to those complaints was palpable. 

I did not make it to Easter without complaining, but I did make it to Resurrection Sunday with a quieter spirit and a clearer focus on the good things, the blessings in my life that are so easy to just pass over. I didn’t take my bracelet off after the 21-day challenge was finished. I kept in on for weeks after until finally, it got caught on a dishtowel while I was drying my hands and broke. (But I’m not complaining.) 

You know what? I had had it on my left wrist—going quite a number of days without having to move it—and now I missed the weight of it.  The reminder of it. The absence of that thin, rubber band was significant. 

My blue star silly band is gone, but my commitment to live more days without complaining—to count them and pile them up—is not gone. I’m still working on my first 30-day stretch. Will you join me? 

What’s on your wrist?

Decisions, Decisions

Making decisions is hard. It’s a commitment. As long as all the options are open you can just float along—feeling powerful and in control, but really not at all.

So to face Jon Acuff’s #dosummer2015 is nearly paralyzing. Pick something--a new skill or lost art-- to work on for the next 100 days in 15 minute increments. The inner voice tells you the list is too long. The areas in which you need to improve, or just get back to, too varied, too big—unDOable! 

To put it lightly you’re overwhelmed, not by the looming days ahead that will mark your progress, but by the long list of self-inflicted need to self improve and the fear of making the call on the wrong area. Or maybe that’s just me.

That’s crazy talk, though. (I’ve found that much of my self-talk is crazy talk.) With the help of some friends, who are also taking the summer challenge, I've been given permission to choose more than one thing to work one. Did I tell you that I'm a rule keeper? They have helped me see that there can’t be a bad decision here. Choosing to walk into a time of focused effort is a good thing.

Therefore, in the spirit of silencing the crazy, here’s what I’ll be working on for #dosummer2015:

• Personal writing—journaling, blogging, notes to friends
• Yoga and healthy movement—regaining lost ground (at home and in studio)
• Piano—seriously anything will be an improvement here
• Teaching—reading, organizing, lesson planning, research (specifically for my chemistry classes)

There, it is written down, and it is varied for sure, but it’s settled. My DO Summer worksheets are printed and labeled. If you want to read more about #dosummer2015 visit http://acuff.me/dosummer2015/ to get started on your own journey this summer.

What will your life look like on the other side of summer?