This was one of the points in yesterday's sermon. When life gets derailed or detoured - like Joseph's and Mary's - you can take time to process. [I borrowed this point from a recent sermon by my mentor, Breada Young]
There are some good synonyms for this process: reflect, ponder, meditate, and ruminate come to mind. But 21st century, American culture doesn't cultivate this response! We seem to have lost the value of having time to just think - there's too much to do!
Thankfully, previous eras did value time for pausing. That's why we have Psalm 119. Chances are, you haven't read it recently. Most people avoid it since it's the longest chapter in the Bible. But, oh, what you're missing!
This psalm was written by someone who absolutely loved God's Word! They had some time on their hands, so they luxuriously reflected on the value of God's Law.
In a way that we might spend a couple of hours watching television, or playing video games, or surfing the net, or Facebooking, this ancient lover-of-God put together a poem expressing his/her appreciation for God's counsel.
The author wrote twenty-two paragraphs about his/her love for God's promises starting each paragraph with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet [most of your Bibles will show this]! Essentially, it's an acronym!
But we don't have time for this kind of silliness today. We barely have time to read a few verses every day. Of course, maybe we would have time if it wasn't for television, video games, the internet, and Facebook. Ooops!
I guess we all make our choices.
Sad though, because most of us are sorely in need of some quiet time for reflection!
NOTE: If you started reading those twenty-two paragraphs today, you would finish on January 2nd. Not a bad plan for someone who's stressed out.
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