On January 1 I joined many people in my congregation and pledged to read the Bible in a year. This has been an incredibly fruitful experience. Along the way I have written, almost every day, a short essay on one of the passages from the Hebrew scriptures. And I've kept these to myself. However, on more than one occasion it occurred to me that the reason I have this blog is to 1) help me distill my thoughts and ideas by putting them down in writing, and 2) to be able to share these thoughts with anyone who might like them.

So, I am going to begin posting these essays with a third reason in mind: to help others work their way through the Bible as well. If you'd like to download the Bible Challenge reading guide, it's on our parish website and you can get it by clicking here.

OK, now to our blog post:

It seems puzzling how humans are able to know with such certainty how dependent we are on God (can I get an amen?) - and yet, at times, we are so capable of totally forgetting God - for some reason we allow other things to get in the way. We give priority, usually, to the things we do FOR God and in the process we FORget God.

The reason this is so important to our well-being is because God is our very life. God is the best part of who we are. God in us is the most attractive part of us.

Sure, we may be handsome, funny, nice, knowledgable, etc., but it is God in us that makes us our best selves. How do we forget God? How do we remember God?