Bible Reading Day 2!

Ok, I'm only two day's into this bible reading plan and I've made a colossal blunder already. I absent-mindedly assumed today I would be reading Job 3 and 4 since yesterday's reading was Job 1 and 2. I was rather pleased with myself for doing my reading today, putting effort into analyzing what I was reading and taking note of the verses that impacted me the most. Only I was doing my reading for next week!

Today I am in the prophecy books and I've really got to hustle because it's not only late in the day but I've got 6 chapters to read! How on earth am I supposed to read 6 chapters in Isaiah and make comments on a small portion?! How can I ignore the throne room scene of chapter 6? And what about the beautiful song of chapter 5? Arg. But I'm committed to reading and journaling my journey, not writing novellas every day. Truly this is a difficult task.

The weird thing about reading Isaiah is that our ladies bible study did the entire book of Isaiah and I feel like I don't remember a thing! I will blame that on the fact that I was new to serious bible study and I was transitioning through some faith issues at the time. Still I have absorbed much more than I can articulate because as I read these chapters they seem to make sense in a way that only serious study could have grated me. Thank you Liz!

So I have chosen Isaiah 3: 18-23

“On that day of judgment the Lord will strip awayeverything that makes her (Judah) beautiful:
ornaments, headbands, crescent necklaces,
earrings, bracelets, and veils;
scarves, ankle bracelets, sashes,
perfumes, and charms; rings, jewels,
party clothes, gowns, capes, and purses;
mirrors, fine linen garments, head ornaments, and shawls.”

Here the Lord is speaking a metaphorical warning to the people of Judah using the actual appearance of the women of Judah. I was thinking recently how much time and money we put into nonessentials and how dependent we've become on them. I've noticed it more since having read Crazy Love by Francis Chan. We love to acquire things that are not necessary for survival or happiness. Can I live without jewelry? How about collectibles? Purses, Porcelains and Shoes. Ok, shoes can go under essentials but how many pairs? ipods, cellphones, magazine subscriptions, gps systems. How do I know when I've gone too far ? What about sports memorabilia? Season tickets? Hours spent watching games and following sports figures? Where does it end? In this passage God is saying to the women of Judah, “You're a perfect example of the waste and self interest that I am going to strip off of Judah for all of her sins. You are more concerned about looking good than about being good. You've got your priorities all upside down. And because you refuse to listen to me I'm going to have to change all of that - the hard way” We all own stuff. We all have stronger interests in some areas than others. And we are all susceptible to consumerism. How much money is wasted on all this stuff? Purse parties, jewelry parties, candle parties, little plastic trinkets that cost America's into the billions of dollars (I'm not kidding). Do we really need any of it? Maybe I've still got enough of the idealist in me to think that we could do a lot better with our money if we weren't such self indulgent consumers. I know I sound grumpy but what if we didn't buy anything that we couldn't honestly live without? Would we die? Would we starve to death? No ones going to do that but thinking that way opens our eyes, I think, to see where we have excess that needs to be trimmed. Maybe it would make a good experiment. Try not acquiring any more of what we don't really need and live as though we didn't own so much of it already for a time. Like say 4 hours. Like voluntarily stripping ourselves of our vanity and greed so that God doesn't have to do it for us.

I'll start right after I finish this blog, reply to that text message, gulp down a latte and powder my nose.