Go, Go, Go...Do, Do, Do

10:50 AMHeather

verb-- any member of a class of words that function as the main elements of predicates, that typically express action, state, or a relation between two things, and that my be inflected for tense, aspect, voice mood, and to show agreement with their subject or object

In other words, bloggy friends, a verb is the action word in a sentence.  I've been thinking about verbs a lot lately.  Not just because my incredibly clever and brilliant friend Amy homeschooled her youngest daughter via FaceTime on a recent road trip to Austin, on the subject of diagramming sentences.  Sure, listening to their intellectual banter on how to diagram the sentence brought shivers to my spine as I remembered sitting in high school English with Mrs. Roos.  But, actually, it just sorta summed up a lot of what's been on my mind these days.

Verbs.  What are the verbs that describe your day?  I just wonder.  Will you indulge me and take a moment to consider them?  Let's make a list together.  Here's mine:
--waking
--waking (children)
--cooking
--eating
--brushing (hair)
--driving
--loading (dishwasher)
--loading (washing machine)
--reading (Bible)
--paying (bills) 
--running
--showering
--running (errands)
--working (on my paying job)
--[therefore] more driving
--planning
--driving
--driving again
--driving some more
--helping (with homework)
--cooking
--eating
--interacting
--completing (tasks, housework, etc)
--crashing (as in, into bed)

Yes, I know that must seem uber exciting.  Verbs.  The stuff of life.  I think if I had to diagram my life like a sentence, I'd be lost how to diagram all those verbs together, all at once?  

Now.  On to a second little exercise together.  When you think about your faith and your understanding of the Bible, what verbs would you list?  For me I think about do, go, tell, obey, listen, run your race, fight the good fight?

Epiphany, friends.  I think God is revealing THIS truth to me in this season of my life.  Are you ready for it?

I'm afraid I have an issue with the forgotten verbs of the Bible.  Those ones that all of us doers and people pleasers and achievers and busy, busy people in a busy, busy culture have long ago forgotten.  They are the ones that don't take center stage.  They are hard because they are simple.  And slowing down our complicated lives to consider "simple" is quite a challenge for most of us.

The best way I can share this revelation with you is to simply give it to you in its purest form.  As I wrote it out in my prayer journal on February 13.

Rest.  Sit. Abide. Remain. Be still. Dwell.  Seek.  The unforced rhythms of grace.  Freedom.  Float in God's Word.  Because its shallow enough for a lamb to wade in and deep enough for an elephant to float.  So float and go deeper.  I keep hearing these words, these phrases, these verses continually these days.  Repetitiously.  The forgotten, ignored verbs of the Bible.  Unwinding and unraveling the "doing."  Building and practicing the being.  Quit doing things to get closer to God.  Just be with Him.  Just pausing.  Just breathing and being with Him.  Then, the doing will become an organic extension of resting, sitting, abiding, remaining, being still, dwelling, seeking.  We dance through our days at staccato paces.  It's not the score God wrote.  He wrote the unforced rhythms of grace.  The pauses that create the "productivity."  Naturally.  But productivity can never create the intimacy we gain from the pauses.

Breaking old habits takes a long time.  Especially lifelong habits of approaching my faith.  Building new ones to replace them takes time, as well.  It's a process.  And I hate to admit how hard I'm finding it to revel in and meditate on the forgotten verbs of the Bible.  
Yet, there's a freedom I feel tugging at my soul.  Yes.  I can hear the call now.  It's the call of my Savior.  The Lover of my Soul.  Giving me my marching orders.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
Matthew 11:28-29

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