Starting Somewhere
There are a lot of people, dare I say most, who have never read the Bible.
I can go even further to say there are many who have never read even one of the sixty-six books contained within the Bible. I put the word “book” in italics because a few of them are only a page or two in length. Hardly book-length. But those who have never cracked open the Bible would likely have not yet (until now, perhaps) learned or discovered this little factoid.
Although I completely understand why The-Most-Published-Book-Of-All-Time gathers a lot of bookshelf dust, it’s still unfortunate.
There is this funny thing about life that is hard to explain to one group of people and is the most obvious thing in the world to another group, and that is this. One group always understands both sides of an argument and the other group understands only their own. The reason is simple. We all start in ignorance.
In this particular case, talking about the Bible, I remember clearly what I thought about reading it before I read it and how different I see it now that I’ve read it many times. Before, I was sure it was (1) boring, (2) impenetrable, and (3) a complete waste of time. I was sure there were much better things to do with my time. Now I have a different perspective and continually return to reading sections over and over and the entire book every few years.
Now I mentioned that I was (and continue to be) impacted by reading from it in many places, but of course it isn’t when I read Holy Scripture (as it is also called) that it gets to me. It’s when I understand what it is saying AND what it is saying has relevance to something going on in my life.
Here is something else I recall. Initially I was afraid to attempt to read it for myself. I thought it needed to be interpreted and explained, and it was important to leave its interpretation to the “experts.”
It was very liberating to discover that I could treat the Bible and its contents like any other book. This might sound heretical to a few, but permit me to explain. I’m not saying to treat the Bible with disrespect or irreverently. I am saying it should be respected enough to be studied critically.
Also treat it like you would any other important document within classic literature. Pay attention to grammer and how it’s writers used common literary devices, for example.
Final Thought Today
In past posts I have encouraged people to seek to find for themselves a community of caring and supportive friends within a church nearby. There are many practical reasons for this. They usually have great potlucks, for example. But more important even than their cooking abilities is that this is the place where you can hopefully find people who have read, and love to read, the Bible. You don’t have to try this alone. But you need to start somewhere, otherwise you will only understand life from the perspective we all had at the beginning.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)
