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| |  | Michael Fox CPCC,
founder of m�agine!,
is a professional
coach and trainer,
author and creative artist, whose work has been featured throughout
the world.
Michael is a
Certified Practitioner
of the
Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator.�
Do you know someone
who might benefit
from our weekly email?
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An ode to Joy,
and to my dad and reading...
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When I was a child, every Sunday evening, my father would surreptitiously climb into the car and drive to the local mom and pop grocer. One of those specialty stores on the corner whose chief trade was...um...bottled stimulants. (Oh, this is embarrassing.) After quite some time, dad would emerge from the market with a plain brown bag packed with a half dozen...paperback books.
Dad has had profound hearing loss for most of his life. Today, he hears only by the remarkable technology of a cochlear implant. In those days--prior to the advent of closed captioning--television wasn't much of an option for dad. (Incidentally, wouldn't it make sense if, when you increased the volume from the remote, the captioning on the screen grew larger?)
Each night of the week, between supper and bedtime, dad would begin and complete a novel, hundreds of pages in length.
Dad encouraged me and my siblings to similarly and voraciously consume books. (In fact, if not for dad's encouragement to read, I wouldn't know what "voraciously" means.) In grade school, dad--though with limited means--made certain that we'd bring home a box of books from Scholastic Publisher's school book sales.
My favorite reads--then, as well as now--included baseball history; art and architecture; mysteries; "strange but true" stories of the macabre (sorry; I mostly got over this one); and a real curiosity, a sense of wonder, around scripture.
Fast forward to my teens. As I browsed the stacks of a Los Angeles area book store, I noticed a slender volume out of place, cast prone atop the highest row of books. Channeling my inner OCD, I pulled the book down, if only to restore it to its rightful place, and was captivated by it's title, The Joy of Discovery in Bible Study.
I brought "Joy" home that day. It taught me to diagram scripture--much like we diagrammed sentences in grade school--to liberate its words and thoughts from the fully justified, impenetrable, rectangular blocks of text found in most Bibles. Details, patterns, structure leaped excitedly from the page. The study of scripture became a passionate pursuit in quest of buried treasure. Every diagram became a treasure map.
Still later, I learned that scripture was written to be read aloud to its initial, first-century, recipients--eighty percent of whom, by conservative estimates, were unable to read. Diagrams, I discovered, encourage the scripture text to be read as intended: audibly, deliberately, clearly; its readers conscious of the timbre and rhythm of scripture.
To this day I use this process both for intensive Bible study and for scripture contemplation in periods of solitude and silence. It's created within me a devotion to the word, wisdom, and wonder of scripture.
Thanks, "Joy." Thanks, dad.
If you're curious to learn more and to give it a try, download a sample diagram and guidelines. Just click right over...there, or here.
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Michael Fox
m�agine!
530/613.2774
407 Myrtle Drive
Farmerville, LA, USA 71241 |
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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--
as well as
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator� curriculum
published by CPP, the People Development People.
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.
For additional information, visit our website at maginethepossibilities.net.
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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