New Beginnings

So here is the deal.  I am busy.  I am a pastor and I am a Barista at a local Starbucks, a wife and a mother to two beautiful girls.  And most of the time I feel that I am too busy to spend time, outside of my weekly sermon prep, in the scriptures.  I try and I struggle with simply finding the time.  The other day I told someone else (a parishioner) it is not like you need to find a whole hour, just find 10 minutes.  You can do it.  And I said earnestly believing it, but also knowing, far too intimately, the struggle this person is experiencing. And this time, I listened to myself and thought about 10 minutes. During a shift at Starbucks, I get one ten minute break every 2 hours I work.  I usually get one or two breaks a day.  So that adds up to 10 to 20 mins every day.  So my commitment is to spend those 10 to 20 mins reading scripture and typing my thoughts and what I am learning.  Why in a blog you ask?  Accountability.  Even if nobody reads this, it is out there, where someone might read it where someone might notice, and for some reason that matters.  For some reason, it does.  So I am going to do this.  Starting TODAY.  I will read at least one of the daily lections from the BCP for my devotions every day, during my 10 min breaks and write, my thoughts, my prayers, what I feel God saying to me through scripture, here in this blog.

Matthew 23:1-12

Ok so, wow.  This is kind of humbling.   On one hand it would be easy to read this passage and say, those Pharisees, better beware.  But here I am writing my scripture reading here in a blog for all to see.  Am I a teacher, a scribe, a Pharisee, showing off for those around me . . . for the world to see?  Look how spiritual I am, I am doing my devotions.  I am reading scripture.  I am seeking God.  Looky here, see me do it.  

I guess as I begin this new journey, that I should start it right.  I need to constantly remember that I am doing this for its own sake, not for to be seen (yes bad grammar and all), for the pat on the back, for the acknowledgement.  I can hope that whatever may come, that I will do this because it is right, because it is good, because it will draw me closer to God.  Let us hope that my coming here each day is answering the entreaty I am continually hearing from God.  Come spend time with me, come talk to me.  Let this time be my continual answer to the beckoning of God.

- Kaza