I’ve been home this week with a rotten cold and caught up on some movies, including A Complete Unknown, the story of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Diana Butler Bass wrote recently that she loved and sang with and cried through the movie. I was also moved to sing and tears by Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and other music of my – and America’s – past. Songs protesting war, inequity, injustice, and willful ignorance, were among the first I learned to play on guitar. “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” “Where have all the soldiers gone?” “If I had a song, I’d sing it in the mornin’, I’d sing it in the evening all over this land.” Those songs resonate so powerfully in these disturbing times.
Tomorrow we head into Lent, a season echoing Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, being lulled and tempted by lies and greed. But Jesus knew His bible! The deceiver pretzeled scripture and Jesus untwisted and tossed it right back. Scripture can ground us and help us find God in the midst of the wilderness. I’m going to recommend three books to read during these coming 40 days, and if you want to read with me, please let me know.
*Questions Jesus Asked: A Six Week Study in the Gospels
*The Bible in a Year: A Journey Through Scripture in 365 Days
*Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness
Don’t forget to move your clocks forward one hour on Saturday night because the times, in many ways, are a’changin’.
In faith, Marylee