EXAMEN.me

I found a pretty cool online resource this weekend. If you are looking for an opportunity to engage in a biblical, spiritual experience, then you might want to check out EXAMEN.ME. I have looked around and am processing through a couple of the opportunities on the site.

My initial hesitancy is the lack of privacy on the internet - especially sites that say they protect your privacy. I know that whatever I type on this keyboard can and might be read by someone else. If you've followed my blog, you might be thinking that I really don't care about that, but I do. EXAMEN.ME offers three different experiences through their website - Scripture examens, prayer examens and a journal. Here are the distinctions of each from the site.

The goal of the Scripture Examen is to meditate on the Word of God with the goal of life-obedience. Use this ancient devotional practice to read, meditate, pray-through, and align your life to a particular passage.

The Prayer of Examen allows you to reflect and recall your day while examining how you live life in the presence of the Lord. By slowing down and examining your day, the Lord has the opportunity to reveal to you specific areas where you are and are not living in His presence.

The Journal Examen is an unguided Examen that gives you the freedom to choose how you interact with God. Besides being a blank journal, you also have the option to look up any scripture passage you desire.

If you are interested in reading your bible for more than just head knowledge, then I think you'd like this site. If you want to experience prayers as communication with Father, rather than recitations, give this a shot. If you are a free-spirit and don't like boundaries, you might just want to freestyle the journal.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass a long a little resource to you.

It's a Story...Not a Textbook

"Spiritual theology, using Scripture as text, does not present us with a moral code and tell us 'Live up to this'; nor does it set out a system of doctrine and say, 'Think like this and you will live well.'  The biblical way is to tell a story and in the telling invite: 'Live into this - this is what it looks like to be human in this God-made and God-ruled world; this is what is involved in becoming and maturing as a human being.'"

- Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p. 43-44

One of my favorite things about the Scripture is that it is not written in a way to flatter us.  It's a story - the good, the bad and the ugly.  One of the things I am trying to recapture is reading it the way it was written and not how I've necessarily been taught.  I have been taught, whether intentional or not, to study the bible and then apply it to my life.  I have read it as a moral code or a systematic theology.  While the bible has within its pages, a code of morality and a system of doctrine, it was not written to be read that way.  It was written mostly in narrative form and it invites me into the stories that are within the pages.  If I am going to honor the holy pages, then I must not read to see what the bible can give me, but read in such a way to discover where I fit into this meta-narrative.  When I read this way, I submit to the story.  I do not use the story to figure out ways to meet my wants, needs and feelings.  I read to engage in the story that is there.  I am in the story of Abraham and Sarah, I'm in the story of Daniel, I'm in the story of Peter and of Paul.

"When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories, but our stories in God's."

- Peterson, p. 44

How different will by reading be when I grasp these truths?  How much richer will the stories be when I read them as a story, not as a school text?  I want to learn to savor the story.  Chew on it.  Taste it.  I want to eat this book.