Dancing Frogs

One of the goals I walked away from lay speakers' training with was a commitment to dig into scripture more. I think in my teaching efforts I may be becoming a little lazy, relying too much on the curriculum and not enough on my own efforts.

So, as one step to help combat that, I'm starting a new project on the blog. Each Monday this summer, I'm going to try to take one of the lectionary readings, and build a blog post from it. I can't think of a clever name for this -- the last "blog project" like this that I did was Beatitude Tuesday, which I just liked to say. I want to do this on Mondays, so that reading the Discipline devotions doesn't influence me. All I can think of right now is Lectionary Lundi (Lundi is French word for Monday). I'm not crazy about that. Anybody got any ideas?

The lectionary reading I chose for today is Psalm 104:24-34, 35b.

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; ...These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground. (verses 24, 27-30)

Have you ever heard of the acronym FROG? It's been a couple of years since I first heard it. It stands for Fully Rely on God. For Mother's Day, Steve bought me a gold enameled frog charm to remind us of it. That's what came to mind when I read this passage. Nature, all of God's creation, is depicted in this Psalm as FRingOG (figure that one out). It occurs to me that saying it is much easier than doing it.

FULLY -- Fully means completely. I think that in this instance, it means to hold nothing back -- to trust without hesitation. When we give everything to God, we will find that we are the beneficiary of all that God offers. It's not a trade -- you give to me, and I'll give to you. It is a gift. It is a gift the requires empty hands.

RELY -- Merriam Webster online gives two definitions for rely:

1. to be dependent
2. to have confidence based on experience

I think that might harder than the Fully part. Do any of us want to be dependent? I think we all value the opposite adjective -- to be independent. We think less of ourselves when we are dependent. To have confidence based on experience is to trust (there's that word again!). Do you have friends upon which you can rely? I do. How do I know that I can rely on them? It is confidence based on experience. How wonderful is it to have that knowledge? Why is it that we sometimes think less of God? From the Psalm: "when you open your hand, they are filled with good things." That's trust. That's a God upon whom we can rely.

ON -- Did you think I would skip that one? We have a picture of Steve and G when G was 10 days old. It was Father's Day. Steve is stretched out on our bed, and G is ON him -- stretched out, asleep. He's tiny, and he's trusting and protected -- his entire body fitting in the space between Steve's chest and his belt. No part of G is hanging off or left unsupported. He is completed ON his father. We are like that -- we can be like that with God.

GOD -- Well, who else, you might ask? There is so much more that we rely on. There are so many other things than God that we place our full trust in. Things which are not God. The commandment -- "You shall have no other gods before me" is broken every day, in so many different ways. We need to keep checking, to keep watch, so that the god on which we rely is God.

Do you know what happens when we FROG?

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. (verse 33)

Do you know what happens when we FROG?

We dance!