Reading the Bible

 

I have been a part of a church for as long as I can remember.  I was raised in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.  My mom was a Sunday School teacher.  Church, youth group, the study of the catechism were a part of my life through high school.  I was an 'intermittent' Lutheran during my time in the military.  Marriage brought me back to church full time, this time to the Catholic church.  And there I have remained.

During the past 59 years, I am sure I have heard virtually all parts of the bible and studied most of them.  However, I have never read the bible cover to cover.  I downloaded "The One Year Bible, New Living Translation"  from Tyndale to my Kindle and began the process in March of last year.  By May I had given up the effort.  I have taken it up again.  For those wishing to take up their own efforts, a version is available online at not cost.  The link is provided under my "Links" section to the left of the site.

ENTJ

Who am I?? Good question - one I have asked at various times in my life. Lay Formation offers another chance to see who's "home" in the head of Bill Keller.

We began with the Myers-Briggs personality typing. I have done various types of these evaluations. I always end up in the lower right hand corner - a controller, leader, judgmental - you know the type - asshole. (can I say that on a blog about my faith?) While the wording was more genteel, the result was the same. I am a:

ENTJ

E - Extroversion: People who prefer Extroversion tend to focus on the outer world of people and things.

N - Intuition: People who prefer Intuition tend to focus on the future, with a view toward patterns and possibilities.

T - Thinking: People who prefer Thinking tend to base their decisions primarily on logic and on objective analysis of cause and effect.

J - Judging: People who prefer Judging tend to like a planned and organized approach to life and prefer to have things settled.

"Frank, decisive, assume leadership readily. Quickly see illogical and inefficient procedures and policies. Develop and implement comprehensive systems to solve organizational problems. Enjoy long-term planning and goal setting. Usually well informed, well read, enjoy expanding their knowledge and passing it on to others. Forceful in presenting their ideas."

Honestly, for those that know me, this is spot on.

The real purpose of this is to evaluate others in our small group and use our individual strengths. Interestingly enough, a person also prays differently depending on your personality type as well. That is the focus of our first reading assignment. I find it pretty interesting. Our next get together is in a few weeks where we evaluate our score - I'm looking forward to it!

Enter

 

One of the first processes was to receive a special word – one that was meant for only me.  The tool to do this was to select a rock with a word written on it during a opening prayer service.  One of the challenges for me personally is to simply be open to God’s voice in my head/heart.  I am a person who prefers to live in my head – to analyze, think, carefully review – there’s not much room to receive messages from anyone, including listening for the Lord’s voice.

However, I am determined to allow God more fully into my life.  So I cleared my mind and simply asked God to show my my rock – the one I was supposed to find and choose as my own.  The result was stunning:  instantly I saw an oval rock, dark grey with a hint of green, fairly smooth.  The image was very vivid.  I awaited my turn and when called I got out of my chair, went to the table at the front of the group (we have just over 100 folks participating) and there was my rock – in the front left corner just behind a few others.  There was no doubt this was the one I saw.  I looked around at others, none came close.  This was MY rock.

I picked it up and returned to my seat.  Slowly I turned it over to read MY word, the one that would be special to me this year.

ENTER

I won’t begin to say the “secret of the word” was  revealed to me, I’m working on that.  But, I saw glimpses of some of its meaning.  I will share those through more posts regarding the weekend.  I suspect I have much to learn and discover over the next three years.

The Begining

 

The Catholic Church  has a program called “Lay Formation”.  It’s purpose is to give the laity a broader and more solid foundation in the Catholic faith.  It is a three year program requiring a retreat weekend in September and at least a meeting a month through the following May.  It requires a personality test (they STILL allowed me to participate) and a personal interview – I didn’t scare  Sr. Marci enough to reject me.

My wife started the program about 13 years ago and finished the three year program.  I watch, observed, questioned – and passed.  Yet, the thought of doing the program has lingered.  About 4 years ago I began going on our parish mission trips to Haiti.  I have blogged about those on our trip blog site.  The voice in my head spoke a little louder.

This spring it became clear it was time.  I suppose I should say I was “called” yet I heard not a whisper – simply a need to join this group.  I am confident my purpose will appear over time. 

For this blog, I want to use it to share my thoughts and experiences.  Honestly, over our first retreat there were very private and emotional moments.  I will not share those – I will simply hold on to those.  But, there were also many deeply moving moments that I would be interested in sharing and getting feedback on. 

So, let the journey begin.  Let us “enter” together.