- Aug 10, 2022
- 3 min read
“You can’t outsource freedom.”
Embrace the Within.
I don’t think I am the only one struggling with people and their misconceptions of Christiainity. It seems like there are a lot of wrong ideas out there. A lot of fake news about what Christians believe and what kind of character constitutes being a Christian. Those are great opportunities for you and I to be an active participant in our faith.As Sir Francis Bacon states in his essay On Studies:
“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing
an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need
have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a
present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much
cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.”
And this quote can apply well to my Christian walk since reading, conversation, and writing help strengthen my understanding and readiness to share the truth with others.
I can’t get away from reading The Bible. That just isn’t a possibility. And this year I undertook reading everything in The Bible and books that are in some versions and not in others and reading everything in its entirety to get a personal understanding of scripture. And there is no substitute for reading and studying on your own. I think so often folks are used to the regimented public education model of teaching where the student learns from lecture by the teacher. I really hate that model and I rarely lecture about anything in my classroom. And anything that starts as a lecture needs to have conversation. We can only internalize information by reading the information on our own and forming our own opinions based upon our own life experiences. Those opinions and understandings are guided, as Christians, through God as we look at the actions of followers over the course of time in diverse places and different cultures. I have to take what happened in the past and in a very different place and apply those instructions to my experience today. And I am never going to be able to do that without reading the scripture myself. I cannot take anyone else’s word for what is there or how it applies to my life.
The conversation part is equally important. I only get better at understanding my faith and relationship with God by talking about it with others. And it doesn’t matter if they are Christians or not. The conversation is about crafting my own understanding into a message that is beneficial to myself and others. Conversation is a way of developing a healthy understanding of what I know and what I do not know. Understanding is not an argument BUT it can be disagreement that pushes me back into The Bible and back into study and reflection. I am not here to argue doctrine and faith and belief. I am here to present doctrine and faith and belief and allow others to make their own choices. There is nothing coercive involved in conversation.
And the writing part is why I am here daily. Getting the thoughts and understanding and conversations and revelations down into writing helps get me a better and more exact idea of what I believe. Finding the right words and knowing the foundations of those ideas that I gained through reading and conversation come together in this medium for a broader and defined picture. The more writing I perform about my readings and conversations, the more defined and refined my ideas become to myself and others.
Are you full, ready, and exact?
Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of God is now. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.