I just love it!

Studying the Bible, that is.  I cannot tell you how many times I have found myself deep in the throes of Bible study: my Thompson Chain and my Key Word Study Bibles open around me, blueletterbible .org open and a Word document or notebook at the ready, that I have been overwhelmed with this sense of peace and joy, and “this is what I loveness!”  (my new word)

Yesterday I was working on a study for the Seminary wives and it happened again, and I felt like a door had opened.  I have tried on a bunch of identities since I retired, and none fit all that well.  But I love this, studying with a purpose to share, and when it happened yesterday, I felt once more like the slowest kid in geometry, when the light suddenly dawned and I got it.

This is what I am supposed to be doing right now. Then, this morning, a former colleague and dear friend posted this:

Oh, I thought, that’s how it is.  In retirement, or at any change in life or location or condition, God doesn’t want anything new of us.  He is just giving us a new situation to continue being the person He has made us to be.

I was in the fifth grade when I was first asked to be the editor of the school newspaper.  I moved schools in sixth grade and was once again asked to be the editor of the school paper.  Basically, that meant I wrote editorials.  Writing has been in my blood ever since, and I realized yesterday, again that slow learning thing, that God just wants me to keep writing, and since I love the studying the Bible to write or teach about it, I should keep doing that.

So, this morning, after Jim left, when the news was over (I am a news junkie but that is another story), it was with anticipation that I returned to my home office, opened up Word and Blueletterbible.org, opened up my Thompson Chain Bible, well, it was already open, but pulled out a drawer to make room for my Study Bible, and sat here with the greatest peace I think I have had since June 1.