Pokin’ and Prayin’ – #SoCS

Your prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “close eyes and point.” When you’re ready to write your post, open a book, a newspaper, or whatever is handy and close your eyes and point. Whatever word or picture your finger lands on, make that the basis of your SoCS post. Enjoy!

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HAAAAAAHaHaHaHaHahahahaha

HA.

ha.

OK – so, when I was a kid, there were actually (a lot of) people in my church who determined the courses of their days and lives by doing this regularly with the Bible. I’ve heard it called “Bible Diving”, “Pray and Poke”, and a couple others that escape my memory this morning.

So when I saw the prompt: “close eyes and point“, that is what immediately came to mind, and….

was immediately what I did.

To stay true to the prompt, I should have just taken one word, but in keeping with my childhood memory, I’m stretching the rules:

Here’s the verse I poked:

Luke 18:35 – “As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.”

My first thought is that this is a divine warning NOT to Bible Dive – “You’re blind and begging. Stop it. Jesus is coming. In fact, he’s drawing near.”

(not bad, huh? I had good teaching)

BUT.

Since I believe Bibliomancy is, in general, a really, really, REALLY silly life planning tool (not to mention the Bible itself speaks strongly against divination of this sort), I’m going to have fun with it and create a few day/life “plans” for myself as if I were a poke-r and pray-er from the good old days.

Plan #1:

Luke 18:35 – “As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.”

Hmmm. I believe Jesus is telling me here that I should major in the visual arts (at a Christian college, of course). “He [Jesus] drew” clearly makes “drawing” my life goal, and if I’m “blind” to this guidance, I’m going to end up on the roadside begging.

Solid exegesis.

Plan #2:

Luke 18:35 – “As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.”

My task for the day is to go find a blind man, or a beggar, or BOTH (bonus points!) and pray for them to regain sight. Jesus will reward me for my faith and obedience.

(side note – I could PROBABLY build a decent case for this being the least awful “flash interpretation” of these three)

Plan #3:

Luke 18:35 – “As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.”

Let’s see… in this verse, “Jericho” is my closet, and since I am not sure what Jesus wants me to wear today, I’m going to “draw near” to my closet like a blind man and beg God to tell me what to wear. Thank you, Jesus, for this Word of Wisdom!

I. Kid. You. Not.

n.b. – If you Capitalize Random Words, they hold more God Power. Little known fact. You’re welcome.

I don’t want to moralize this morning. I’m not really in the mood. Plus, I feel a little bad poking fun at anyone’s beliefs, no matter how bizarre (I’m holding to some unconventional beliefs myself these days).

Live and let live, right?

Sure, just as long as the Bible Pokers and Divers let me live mine as well.

Somehow, I don’t see that happening.

I think the verse JUST BEFORE the “Poke ‘O The Day” is a nice end cap:

Luke 18:34: “But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

Blind indeed.

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#SoCS comes from the website of Linda G. Hill.

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.