You Are What You Read

I just finished a new series. It doesn't have a "happily ever after". (sniff, sniff) I'm actually feeling rather melancholy at the moment. As I've been processing the story, and trying to distill and process the worldview, I remembered that "you are what you read". In one series I read a few years ago, the same thought is expressed something like this: you leave a piece of yourself between the pages. What you read changes the way you think about things, the way you feel about things, the way you respond to things. So what you read MATTERS! I love reading fiction, particularly the fantasy genre, because anything is possible (Therefore, happy endings are possible. -- I like feeling happy, so happy endings are important to me.).

So here's the admonition for the day. Read the Bible. Engage in the stories. Learn about the God who IS, and who loves His broken creation so much that He sent His Son for us! And don't stop with learning about God, move beyond intellectual assent to KNOWING! Leave pieces of yourself within the pages of Scripture, and let the Living Word change the way you think, and feel, and respond. Soli Deo Gloria!

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! 
Praise befits the upright. 
Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; 
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 
Sing to him a new song; 
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 

For the word of the LORD is upright, 
and all his work is done in faithfulness. 
He loves righteousness and justice; 
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. 

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, 
and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 
He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; 
he puts the deeps in storehouses. 
Let all the earth fear the LORD; 
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 
For he spoke, and it came to be; 
he commanded, and it stood firm. 

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; 
he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 
The counsel of the LORD stands forever, 
the plans of his heart to all generations. 
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, 
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 

The LORD looks down from heaven; 
he sees all the children of man;
 from where he sits enthroned he looks out 
on all the inhabitants of the earth, 
he who fashions the hearts of them all 
and observes all their deeds. 
The king is not saved by his great army; 
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 
The war horse is a false hope for salvation, 
and by its great might it cannot rescue. 
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, 
on those who hope in his steadfast love, 
that he may deliver their soul from death 
and keep them alive in famine. 

Our soul waits for the LORD; 
he is our help and our shield. 
For our heart is glad in him, 
because we trust in his holy name. 
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, 
even as we hope in you.
Psalms 33:1-22