| Today, Brueggemann gives some insight on how to consider this notion of our nephesh. For this day ponder you nephesh in its wholeness, its complexity, its social location, and imagine the voices and tasks that deplete and the voices and tasks that restore. And rest! If you need a guide for nephesh pondering, try Psalm 35: - say to my soul, "I am your salvation" vs.3
- then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance. All my bones shall say, "O Lord, who is like you? You deliver the weak from those too strong for them, the weak and needy from those who despoil them" vss 9-10
- How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions! vs. 17
(read life/soul as nephesh) There are never-ending ways to rest when such words are handed to us. There is the God - our God - who brings rest and who makes promises and is the eternal keeper of promises no matter what the day holds for us. This is how we begin to rest. This is how we take the time to step back and rest or step back and watch the unfolding joy of God's Reign take place all around us. When we become so tied up and tied down to the events of the day we do not give time and space to rest and openness to the way God can and does surprise us with life that will take us beyond our limits and into a reality that come into simply through being re-nepheshed. Connection: When you hear those words: "I am your salvation" and you know that it is a word of promise that shakes all creation with the one truthfulness that cannot be ripped from us, what does it do to your heart? With the whole church and all creation, we pray that it will bring us rest and peace. Come, Lord of the Wind and God of Creation. Come and lift us up to see your promises even when we are being consumed by the events around us. Amen. |
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