What Shall We Do?

The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord. - Proverbs 16:33

I'm learning to walk with God in fresh ways. The Holy Spirit and I play games as He's teaching me. The best learning is fun; it's discovery, it's exploratory, and it's repetition with variation. Usually, it's learning by doing, instead of trying to learn by reading or hearing, and it's personal. Rather than learning about what someone else did, I am challenged to do something unique in partnership with God in our own unique way.

If I don't wake up with some pressing directive, I ask, "What Shall We Do?" of the Holy Spirit. Many times, He answers with something specific; write a letter to this person, read this chapter from the Bible, walk around this building and pray. Kingdom-building games of discovery by doing.

Some days, "What Shall We Do?" returns no distinct answer. On these days, if there's nothing pressing to accomplish from my end, we roll the dice, and pull randomly from a list of 25 activities.

I prompt Siri on the iPhone: "Random number from 1 to 25."
She will abruptly answer, "It's Seven," or another number. Before I used the iPhone, I would visit a random-number generating website, like this one. 

I take this number to be directly from my Holy Friend. If that sounds questionable to you, be assured that this is what the apostles did when they flipped a coin to choose between Matthias and Justus to replace Judas among the 12 at the end of Acts 1. They used their minds to narrow down the good choices (they had two to choose from, we have 25), then basically said, "God, you pick from what we think is best." 

Prior to a 25-item list, I had a list of 10, which grew to 15, then 20. I add new items to explore as they bubble up into my experience. Maybe this time next year I'll have a list of 50 activities.

It's fresh every time. Say the random number was 7, like above. Then I'll spend some time working in partnership with the Lord by praying with an eye to binding up some bad stuff and releasing God's good stuff, ala Matthew 18:18 (see below, number seven is Bind/Release, in the prayer-stuff section).

Here's my list.

1. Waste Time with God
2. Take Dictation > Listen
3. Meditate on a (Biblical) Truth

4. Craft a prayer
5. Pray a Bible passage
6. Intercede
7. Bind/Release
8. Prayer Walk

9. Write a Song
10. Sing Worship
11. Soak Worship

12. Listen to a Sermon
13. Craft a Sermon
14. Journal > Testimony

15. Bible Exploration
16. Bible Listening
17. Read your Current Study Book
18. Memorizations - Recitations
19. Promises > Inheritance Verses

20. Craft a Word of Prophecy
21. Craft a Blessing > a Letter of Encouragement
22. Craft a Declaration
23. Create/Make Art

24. Go on a Treasure Hunt
25. Give Something Away to Someone

Some of these may not make sense to you. Much of my original short list was composed of meditative and solitary activities, but I'm seeing a movement into adding items to the list that are more active and less "traditional personal quiet time." God is taking me into a place where our time together is used to meet others at their point of need.

This night, I had a little time to ask What Shall We Do?, and I rolled a 10. I got out the guitar and sang. "Be Thou My Vision," mostly, trying to play it through without weeping and having to stop to blow my nose. Good thing I can sing from the heart, because my voice and mucous membranes leave my presentation wanting.

Anyway, the question for you is: What is He doing that's new? What's on His list of things to do in partnership with you? To start, I challenge you with this one-item list:

1. Make a What Shall We Do? list of your own.
Addendum: a year and a half later, sure enough, we added items and are still adding items, and are now playing the game with a listing of 53.