Discovering the Familiar

In his book Orthodoxy, Chesterton relates a story that he always meant to write, about an English yachtsman who sets sail, miscalculates his route, and — after weeks on the ocean — lands back in England under the impression that it’s a new island in the South Seas.

The intrepid explorer, armed to the teeth and speaking in sign language, plants the Union Jack on the barbaric shore that turns out to be … the beach at Brighton. He’s a fool, of course, but a happy one; because what could be better than to have all the fascinating terrors of going abroad …. combined with the security of coming home again? To brace oneself for New South Wales and then realize – with a gush of happy tears – that it was really old South Wales?

That yachtsman is me.

Wasn’t it drummed into me that a morning quiet time with the Lord is an essential spiritual discipline? But I sailed far away from this practice, eschewing fussy habits like daily devotions.

Then, about ten years ago, I decided – for some forgotten reason -- that I would read the Bible. The whole Bible. I knew it could be done in a year, at 15 minutes per day. I embarked on the project one New Years’ Day, and with starts and stops – there were times when I had to digest several days’ ration of scripture to make up for what I’d missed – I managed to complete my task.

But it all went by so fast! So the next year I got out a different translation and started in again. It was in the second year that I realized I was less likely to get behind if I did the reading first thing in the morning, before everyone was up and about in the house, before going to work.

The morning habit began to be established. I soon found that, in the quietness, reading scripture led me into an attitude of prayer. Especially as I read the Psalms, those words would become my own words, things that I too could say to God. And reading the words of Jesus prompted me to respond to him, to speak back to him on the basis of what he had said.

If daily devotion is a discipline, it is certainly one of the happiest I’ve ever practiced – involving as it does a comfortable chair, a view of the garden, a gentle beam of light on the page, and the morning’s first cup of coffee. I look forward to this as I go to sleep, and it propels me out of bed in the morning. On the occasions when I’m robbed of it, I feel the loss.

I’ve used the early morning hours to read through the Bible several more times, and to read devotional books as well. Anything that orients me towards God works for me. It’s been a time to reflect, to pray, to commit myself and the day ahead to the Lord. And because this is done in the first hours of the day, it has been a subtle yet strong reminder that my day is not my own, and neither is my life.

What a happy thing it is, to land on the familiar shore after so many years at sea.

Image by Cuba Gallery. Used with permission. Sourced via Flickr. Post by Alice Slaikeu Lawhead.