Sometimes I have a hard time engaging Scripture so I make myself do something that I made my 9th graders do with EOC questions. To make sure that they really understand what they're reading, I have them put them in their own words. Lately I have been doing likewise, only instead of questions, I'll put the Bible into my own words. It's like the message, Emily version.

Here's the New King James Version of Isaiah 58: 10-12

If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.



And here's my paraphrase

If you offer your life-breath to those who need food,
And make complete one's tortured being,
Then you will be like the sun,
And your night will be the same.

God will always be ahead of you
And make complete all of you in dry times,
And make your bones enough;

You shall by like an irrigated oasis,
And like a fountain of water, whose waters will not run out.

Everyone who is near you will raise up the ancient forgotten places;
You will create the groundwork for many to come;
And you will be renamed the Healer of wounds,
The Reclaimer of Paths to Travel.


And from all that, I wonder now what it means to extend your very soul to people. It sounds a little painful, and as though you'd be laid bare. I'll keep pondering this, but now to bed.