I've never been very good at keeping on track with daily practices, spiritual or otherwise. I might do well for a week or two, but then pages of the devotion book are skipped, and journal entries (or blog posts!) become more and more sporadic. So far, though, I've kept on track with reading through the psalms, and I think accountability (and crayons!) has been the magic solution.
At the end of June, I was able to spend a day up at Lutherlyn for family camp with my dear friend Colleen. She is a family camp veteran and a pastor, and taught a workshop on Praying in Color. I've always been a doodler, and have had Sybil MacBeth's book Praying in Color since 2009 (but never did much with it), so I was excited to attend Colleen's workshop and hopefully get some inspiration from someone who has been utilizing this practice more faithfully than I had.
One of the examples Colleen used was a sort of lectio divina - to listen to a passage and choose a word or phrase to linger on and doodle. (For more on lectio divina, check out this explanation from Mark Oldenburg at LTSG). I decided that this was how I would tackle the psalms; with one fine tip black pen and a box of 120 crayons*, I would attempt to doodle my way through 150 psalms in 184 days.
I doodled away on Psalm 1, then took a photo of my drawing with my phone and posted it to the Psalms in 184 Days Facebook group.
As the days went on, I was a bit surprised by how well-received my doodles were. Quite a few people commented that these little drawings helped them look at the psalms in a new way. Their comments and "likes" on Facebook appear to be the accountability I need to be consistent with this practice! I try to post every day, but even when that doesn't happen, I haven't yet been more than a day behind. I look forward to taking time each day to be still and read the psalm and color.
One thing I like about the psalms is that we find in Scripture, in one place, the whole range of human emotions. God can handle our anger, our joy, our feelings of abandonment, and our ill wishes toward our enemies. Prayer doesn't have to be neatly wrapped up and sanitized. Instead, we cry out to God with our whole selves - our emotions and our intellect and our most basic reflexes - and God hears us.
As I continue this practice, I'm making connections between different psalms, and have been paying attention to the interpretive choices I make in my doodles. I've also noticed that my lettering and doodling often highlight the parallelism found in the psalms.
I continue to ponder ways in which I might compile all my doodles at the end of the 184 days. For now, Rob had the great idea to compile them via hashtag - so, if you're on Facebook, follow along at #PsalmsInColor - we're up to the first part of Psalm 27 today.
A few of my favorites so far:
What sort of spiritual practices have you found meaningful?
Have you ever tried "praying in color" before? If you're interested, check out the Praying in Color blog.
Would you like to join us as we continue to read through the psalms?
*My box of crayons is pretty sweet, but not as sweet as the telescoping crayon tower...
One of the examples Colleen used was a sort of lectio divina - to listen to a passage and choose a word or phrase to linger on and doodle. (For more on lectio divina, check out this explanation from Mark Oldenburg at LTSG). I decided that this was how I would tackle the psalms; with one fine tip black pen and a box of 120 crayons*, I would attempt to doodle my way through 150 psalms in 184 days.
I doodled away on Psalm 1, then took a photo of my drawing with my phone and posted it to the Psalms in 184 Days Facebook group.
As the days went on, I was a bit surprised by how well-received my doodles were. Quite a few people commented that these little drawings helped them look at the psalms in a new way. Their comments and "likes" on Facebook appear to be the accountability I need to be consistent with this practice! I try to post every day, but even when that doesn't happen, I haven't yet been more than a day behind. I look forward to taking time each day to be still and read the psalm and color.
One thing I like about the psalms is that we find in Scripture, in one place, the whole range of human emotions. God can handle our anger, our joy, our feelings of abandonment, and our ill wishes toward our enemies. Prayer doesn't have to be neatly wrapped up and sanitized. Instead, we cry out to God with our whole selves - our emotions and our intellect and our most basic reflexes - and God hears us.
As I continue this practice, I'm making connections between different psalms, and have been paying attention to the interpretive choices I make in my doodles. I've also noticed that my lettering and doodling often highlight the parallelism found in the psalms.
I continue to ponder ways in which I might compile all my doodles at the end of the 184 days. For now, Rob had the great idea to compile them via hashtag - so, if you're on Facebook, follow along at #PsalmsInColor - we're up to the first part of Psalm 27 today.
A few of my favorites so far:
What sort of spiritual practices have you found meaningful?
Have you ever tried "praying in color" before? If you're interested, check out the Praying in Color blog.
Would you like to join us as we continue to read through the psalms?
*My box of crayons is pretty sweet, but not as sweet as the telescoping crayon tower...
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