What's next?

I'm taking suggestions...

Can I just say? I loved gazing at God and contemplating the dynamics of faith with you. God’s book is deep water, teeming with life, truth, and beauty, and you’ve been a wise, kind, thoughtful group with whom to contemplate it. I had an idea that this kind of meditation might be worth pursuing. Now, I’m sure. Reading the Bible slowly, together is a practice worthy of perhaps the most valuable thing I have to offer—my attention.

Over the course of our 42 day soak in Hebrews 11, I wrote devotions from borrowed desks in five states. It’s been a big month and a half:

My daughter, London, graduated from Coast Guard bootcamp (we went to New Jersey and got caught in a snowstorm) and then she moved to the Florida Keys (I’m writing this missive from the southernmost point in the US, shivering as I do thanks to an atypical cold snap).

Justin and I visited new friends in Philadelphia (Uzbek food! Revolutionary history tour!) and old friends in Washington D.C. where we found ourselves invited to pray for the country on the White House lawn (surreal).

I wrote Day 42 from a hotel in Franklin, TN at the Women of Hope conference (where I had the gift of teaching on Revelation 6, Isaiah 60, the Psalms of Ascent, and the path of pilgrimage as a path to unity).

I kicked off a study of Revelation with the college small group Justin and I lead.

And all along the way I carried Deep Water—silence, the treasure of Hebrews 11, a cloud of witnesses, and the power to keep going. I hope it was the gift to you that it was to me.

Many of you have asked, What’s next? Answer: More of this.

My plan for Deep Water is to publish three or four mediations per year (we’ll commit to a year for now and see how I feel in December). The next one arrives in your inbox the Monday after Easter (Lord willing). I’m considering a few possible texts... Keep reading to the end to weigh in…

Going forward, we’ll keep each meditation up for a month or two after completion, and then take it down (or put it behind a paywall) when the next one drops. Past meditations will be turned into print resources for purchase (42 Days in Hebrews 11 launches as a physical book in April). If you’re interested in leading a Deep Water Hebrews 11 study in the summer or fall, we’ll have resources ready for you.

I hope you’ll stick around as a part of the Deep Water community here on Substack. You are wonderful people, and I’d love to build something beautiful together.

Okay, last thing, if you want to offer suggestions for our next meditation, I’m all ears. I’d love to just let you guys choose, but I think the best way forward is to concentrate on the texts I’ve already spent a lot of time with God in. So, in the next year or so I’m thinking Hosea 1&2, Romans 8, John 13-15, Revelation 21 & 22, Psalms 23-27, and Isaiah 40 (Isaiah 44 is in the mix, too). Which would you do first? Which one seems especially interesting? Let me know in the comments!

May Yahweh shine His face upon you!

JL

The sunset last night. Key West calls itself “the home of sunset.” We don’t live here—we’re just visiting our daughter. But as Justin’s taken to saying lately, when your grown kids move out of the house it’s like you’ve been horcruxed. Wherever they live, a little bit of you lives there, too.