Where

I’ve reached a point in my Christian life that I’m not proud of.

(whew… what a way to start a post, huh?)

I was the kid in my Sunday school class who nailed every single “sword drill” (did you do these? put your Bible on top of your head, the teacher would call out a verse, and you tried to be the first one to find it? The Bible is the sword of the Spirit?). I attended public school from kindergarten through college, but Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and eventually other days for campus Bible studies, I was quite the Bible scholar.

About 5 years ago (maybe a little longer… it all blurs together after kids) I decided to read through the Bible in a year — chronologically. Thankfully I used a reading plan on an app on my phone (technology can be so great sometimes) so I didn’t even have to think about it.

And my knowledge of the Bible grew by leaps and bounds.

I can now tell you that Job happened about the same time as Abraham. Daniel was during the Jewish exile. Nehemiah was after that. (I still get the minor prophets out of place, but you get the idea)

Putting everything into context, I’ve gotten even better at knowing where in the Bible to find a certain story or verse. If you asked me where to find the crossing of the Red Sea, David before he became king, when Solomon dedicated the temple, the Psalm that talks about lifting up my eyes to the mountains, the Prodigal Son, Saul on the road to Damascus — probably 90% of the time I can tell you the book and chapter it’s found without looking it up, or at least get really really close.

But why is this a problem? Aren’t we supposed to hide God’s word in our hearts, able to share them with people who need encouragement (including ourselves)? What if someday it’s a crime to own a Bible and we need to rely on what we know?

Here’s my issue: I’m afraid with all of this head-knowledge of where things are in the Bible, it’s lost some of its heart-power for me. I find myself reading a verse or passage or even participating in a Bible study and hearing my head say “I already know this.”

And that scares me a little — the Pharisees in Jesus’ time had ALL of the head-knowledge, but Jesus countered them constantly. He wanted more than just their ritual make-this-sacrifice-when-this-happens — he wanted them to go deeper and understand the heart behind the sacrifice.

So I’ve been stuck in my Bible reading and study for quite awhile. I have no desire to read those little daily devotionals that give a single verse and someone’s thoughts about it. But most Bible studies I’ve tried recently that go deeper simply uncover things that I already know about certain passages (or ask questions of “think about a time when       happened” and I honestly can’t come up with anything). And when I try to just read the Bible, by itself, on my own, I feel lost in knowing where to even start.

I don’t have answers. Sorry if you were expecting a nice 3-step process for Bible reading to close out this post. 🙂 If you have any thoughts or comments or ideas of your own, I’d love to hear them below!

I’ll end with the familiar (to me at least) words of Psalm 121… but in a different translation that I would typically read, to try and spur new understanding and heart-power:

I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

He won’t let you stumble,
your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
Guardian will never doze or sleep.

God’s your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.

God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.

Five Minute Friday is a weekly opportunity to simply write about one word for only five minutes, and link-up what you’ve written, to connect with other writers.

My posts are almost always more than 5 minutes. 😉