SYFY, nightmares, and Amy Grant Oh My!!!

        I admit freely that I like watching those cheesy SYFY movies.  The more ridiculous sounding the title, the more my interest is peeked.  I read titles like Megapython vs. Gatoroid thinking "What in the world?" and I have to watch at least five minutes.  Of course within that five minutes I get hooked and well.... five minutes turns into two hours.  A few weeks ago I watched one that brought on a nightmare.  I woke up scared and could not go back to sleep.  Visions of these crazy, tribal, vicious, doglike tree men flashed every time I closed my eyes.  Now when I have a nightmare, singing songs in my head helps me fall back asleep.  The only song that came to me on this night was Amy Grant's Thy Word.  Now I have not heard that song in AGES but I could remember EVERY word.   I really held onto the line "nothing will I fear, as long as you are here" and in no time I was back asleep nightmare free. 

     Flash forward to this week's daily bible reading and I find myself reading Psalm 119.  It is a Hebrew acrostic poem that is 176 verses long.  I don't think I have ever read one of those verses let alone all 176 until this week and I was really liking the subject.  It seemed focused on the joy and benefits of studying God's word and law.  The verses echoed my own desire of knowing God deeper through the reading of the Bible.   Then, I had to smile even more because, tucked away in this Psalm at verse 105 is the reference for my nightmare fighting Amy Grant song "Your word is a lamp to guide my feed and a light for my path."  Suddenly the verse was not just an isolated, stand alone verse from my childhood that supported the indoctrinated practice of Sunday school scripture memorization.  In context, I found that it was a verse woven into a tapestry of so many other beautiful verses expressing to God how much the writer loved God and his word.  How important the word was to him/her, how the word brought delight and joy, how the word reminded the writer of God's comfort and unfailing love and his faithfulness.   YES, YES, YES (I wanted to shout).... because I realized that after establishing a short daily bible reading time for the last six months that is just the way I feel about God and his word.  I did not think I would ever feel that way about reading the Bible.  Bible reading always seemed so hard and took too long.  I am so glad my heart is changing in this area.  No wonder Amy Grant sang a song about that verse!