Hand-writing the Psalms, Pt. 1

I've taken on a project that is fairly daunting and is - quite frankly - taking some time: hand-copying each of the 150 psalms. Over the summer, I was on Twitter and found a post about people hand-copying the Gospel of Luke. I wasn't really interested in that, but, I thought to myself, I could tackle the psalms. The psalms, which include such a range of human emotion and devotion, just like me, especially right now. It felt like a collection that I'd be able to really get into, and...I have.

Originally, my goal was to write a psalm each day, maybe splitting up some of the longer ones into multiple days. What has happened, though, has been an unexpected lesson, and that is the lesson of giving myself grace. It turns out that sometimes, I just don't have the energy to take on something as simple and easy as hand-copying one psalm.

And what I've learned is that's OK.

My mom used to say to me, "You sure are being awfully hard on yourself," in moments when I was beating myself up for something or another. I can still hear her voice saying those words, and they run like a soundtrack whenever I begin to feel guilty for not writing out my psalm for the day.

But life calls for grace - not only for others, but for ourselves. Life calls for us to be focused at times, certainly, but sometimes, the lesson is how to give ourselves a break, so that we can better pick up the task the next day.

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​​For more on this project, I'll be adding another post, including a YouTube video next week. Stay tuned!

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