Performing Holy Habits
Good Morning Friends,
Today’s paper announces the hope of a performing arts center at Ave Maria University and I would have to say that this is a good thing for the melding of arts and religion and the Bible have been connecting entertainment and economics and education for a very long time. At the foundation of it is I think the experiencing of the Word of God as part of the way we experience a life in God. So we go to the Bible to learn what this journey is all about and our parts in the stage of life. And here we find that relationships without effort are purposeless. And we learn that God takes our effort and turns it into joy. Here we learn that survival is linked, at least in part, to the work of building and Performing Holy Habits.
Scripture: I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
Psalm 119:15-16 (NRSV)
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105 (NRSV)
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NRSV)
Message: The Bible shows us how the world progresses. The theme is shown in the best works of the arts and literature and especially so in the characters found in the stories from the Bible. Rembrandt is just one example of an artist moved by scripture. Shakespeare is a great example of a writer that used biblical themes. So too the world’s best music is also based on biblical themes from Bach, Beethoven to U2. Creative culture is continually being inspired by biblical concepts and stories. In it is the foundation of who we are and will become. Even our laws are based on the moral code of the Bible. We practice it and perform it and hopefully worship and honor God through it. Of course the Bible has prompted great humanitarian works to alleviate the suffering in the world and inspired people to action. People’s lives throughout the ages have been profoundly affected for good by the moral high ground they have faced as they read the Bible and experienced its themes in the arts performed. But make no mistake, it is the Word made flesh that comforts the sorrowful. It is in a relationship with the divine that the fearful have found courage and the weary strength. Friends, healing, forgiveness and hope is not in a word that leads nowhere but the relationship connecting the Word to a purpose divine. Surely anyone who comes to the Bible as a serious student always goes away a better person. Surely lives are transformed by the foundation of life reflected in this book. Its words become living and life changing when they become our own held in our heart with a love that also comes from God. Friends, God has made a path for us to walk in and getting in the habit of taking the orderly steps in God’s Word each day will light up your life for a journey with a purpose. Don’t you wonder what new works of art will be performed at Ave Maria University inspired by the Word made Flesh? Learn your lines from the Bible and the foundation of the performance might just reflect paradise.
Lord we:
Pray we are hungry for the Word of God in those things we consider entertainment. Pray we make time to read scripture and meditate on it with others of faith so it might be acted out in our life. Pray we are renewed by the regular reading of scripture with others in a play that never closes. Pray the written word becomes the Living Word of Christ as the curtain opens and the Holy Spirit fills us. Pray we realize that playing our part is not bondage but blessing. Pray we realize that the word is Jesus and that Jesus is the light of the world’s stage. Pray new songs are sung and actions performed that honor God in our lives so that our character becomes more like God’s.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 