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Michael Fox CPCC,
founer of m�agine!,
is a professional
coach and trainer,
author and creative artist, whose work has been featured throughout
the world.
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Kathy and I have twin girls, nine years old: Lucy and Gracie. To be honest, they're real dogs.
No, really.
In their younger years we would occasionally treat Lucy and Gracie to large, succulent beef bones. When we would unwrap the bones--each of them nearly half the size of the girls themselves--Lucy and Gracie would sit and wait expectantly, their "tail wagging the dog," drool extending from their anxious mouths. Lucy would grab her bone and run to a corner of the yard, while Gracie--the weaker of the two, our "special needs" girl--would drag her heavy bone to an opposite corner.
Then the dance would begin.
Gracy's only interest in the bone was to keep it from her sister. Lucy would lay low to the ground, sphinx-like, her own bone cradled in her forelegs, intently watching for an opportunity to storm Gracie's corner, swoop up her sister's bone, and then retreat to her corner of the yard. Gracie--lest you assume she was simply to be pitied in this dance--would tease Lucy by dragging her bone back and forth across the yard. Quite amusing to watch.
Within a day or so, Gracie would inevitably lose interest in her bone, and Lucy would go to work on both of them. Lucy would work one bone, then the other, licking, biting, gnawing--all the while groaning with delight. It would take Lucy about a week's worth of intensive effort to reach the marrow, the rich treasure of her prey.
The prophet Isaiah observed similar devotion in a lion: "As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey..." [Isaiah 31:4]. The word "growls" is translated from the Hebrew hagah. The word literally means to groan, sigh, mutter, or speak; interestingly, however, hagah is also used metaphorically by Jewish poets and prophets to describe the practice of meditating upon the words of God. For example--just one among many--the psalmist described the blessed man as the man whose "delight is in the law of the Lord," upon which "he meditates [hagah; "licking,
biting, gnawing--all the while groaning with delight] day and night" [Psalm 1:2].
Oooh.
So...
What does meditative, spiritual reading look like to you?
Is it light and passive, or is it weighty and intensive?
When you read scripture or other books of spiritual wisdom (do you, in fact, read scripture or other books of spiritual wisdom?) do you read them differently than when you read the paper, a magazine, a novel?
Do you--like my Lucy consuming her bone--slowly, deliberately, gnaw and chew and grown over the words, allowing your soul to consume them until they are assimilated and become holiness and wisdom?
An angel instructed the apostle John to "Eat this book" [Revelation 10:9-10]. John ate the book and declared, "It was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I
had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter." How is it possible for "the book" to be sweet as honey and yet bitter to the stomach?
How might your reading and meditation of scripture and books of spiritual wisdom better reflect a "dog-with-a-bone" kind of consumption?
Eat this book; "taste and see that the LORD is good" [Psalm 34:8].
Want more? Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading is the name of a lovely book written by Eugene Peterson that expounds upon the theme of this week's article.
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Michael Fox
m�agine!
530/613.2774
P.O. Box 9144
Auburn, CA, USA 95604
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In addition to personal and professional coaching,
m�agine! specializes in spiritual transformation coaching,
employing its proprietary models: Values, Vision, Voice and Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength.
Michael's books include Complete in Christ,
Complete in Christ Spiritual Transformation Workbook, and Biblio�files.
Coaching fees are based upon a sliding scale. Contact us for details.
Limited scholarships are available for spiritual transformation coaching.
On the flip side, if you are able, please inquire about opportunities
to fund scholarships for those who cannot afford coaching fees.
View our archives!
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