So this week just passed I completed editing Vol 5 of A Walk Through Holy Week. That is, I completed the first editorial pass through the book. At least one, and possibly two more editorial passes are needed.
Although this is Vol. 5, I think it was the first one written. I put it on the shelf about three years ago as I tried to decide if I would write the whole series, and if I did, what shape would it take. I eventually decided I would write the whole series, changed it from six volumes to eight with a better organization, and finished Vol 8 last year. At that point I started editing and publishing the series beginning with Vol 1. I’ve completed publishing tasks through Vol. 4, putting that one up for sale on Amazon last month.
In Vol. 5, I found a lot of stuff wrong in the first few chapters, which is why I think two more editorial passes can be expected. But the last several chapters were better. And, as I read them in the first pass, three years after I first wrote them and last read them, I found some things to help with a number of concerns I have today. Here it is.
What About The Game Plan?
Remember the Game Plan we were working on? That list of encouragements, cautions, and commands? I haven’t mentioned it for a few chapters. I left it when it was beginning to burgeon into an unwieldy list. Too many things to think about, to constantly read over and implement.
Afterall, the Christian walk ought to be a kind of automatic thing. If Jesus is in us, and if we have walked with him for a while, we ought to naturally do the things that result in our being stronger Christians who are building the kingdom of God. We ought not have to think about every action and wonder if we are doing the right thing, the devout Christian thing.
So how do we do this? Do we even need a game plan? For me, I still like a list of things—I won’t call them rules—that I should review from time to time to help me live a more productive Christian life, fully devoted to my Savior. Not something to obsess over, but something to give me help when I need help.
The game plan from a few chapters ago doesn’t quite do this. I don’t mean to say it’s bad. It’s just…it’s just…too unwieldy. Sorry, but I can’t think of a better word to describe it. So I want something simpler.
A few things have come to mind. One is that this section of the Bible, John 14-17, is worth reading over every year. I’m not one who reads the entire Bible yearly, so without some kind of intentionality, I might not read this for several years. That’s not good enough. Henceforth, I’ll read this every year, perhaps a couple of times. I want to dwell on it, not rush through. I want to think about what it says about Christian living. What have I forgotten over the last year? What do I need to think a little more about as I go about daily tasks? That’s something I must add to the game plan.
What else? Obviously, something more about prayer needs to go in, but what? In the last two chapters, I can see at least a dozen statements of Jesus that would form encouragements, commands, or cautions concerning prayer. Alas, that’s too many to add to the Game Plan.
So I’ve been thinking as I wrote the last two chapters that I need some simple items to add to the lists, perhaps as a preface—a few things I can say every morning, or a couple of times a day if needed, as reminders of what my Christian walk ought to look like.
I was reminded of the three simple rules John Wesley wrote about finances that would serve as overarching guidance for his parishioners.
Earn all you can.
Save all you can.
Give all you can.
Surely I can come up with something like that—except I need four “rules”, not three. Here they are.
Love all you can.
Pray all you can.
Learn all you can.
Serve all you can.
I like that. I can say those every morning, and at other times during the day, as reminders of how I should live.
I wrote those words, then life got in the way and I forgot about them. Reading then again gave me new inspiration to re-establish some of those priorities.
