Missiles and Dreams no. 1 (Prologue)
I am not in The Bible. The culture and society in which I live is not in The Bible. And that is why I should not be reading myself and my society into The Bible. This does not mean there is nothing for me to learn from The Bible. The Bible is full of stories and lessons and poetry that applies to my life today as much as it applied to life 2000 years ago or more. BUT when I forget the context of the people and places of which I read, I lose sight of the time and place that influenced the writing of these scrolls and letters. When I forget the context of literature, I deprive literature of shaping me from its heritage and I shape it.
Not long after Christ’s death, folks started all sorts of heresy within His Church. Paul writes letters about these problems and this battle with changing what Christ’s message was not something recent, these heretical views were a point of contention and conflict in the early Church. So, I am not surprised when, thousands of years later, after reading ourselves and our culture into a book, I sometimes get the wrong answers. And some folks are going to say that I am getting the wrong answers now. BUT I am taking the Word at what it says and in its own context. And it has taken a lot of deconstructing what I was taught and what I was told by folks that were well intentioned BUT also taught and told something by other well intentioned folks. Things that never sat right with me about Christianity needed to get tackled by me in order to reconcile what I was taught and told with what I was seeing in The Bible.
And so, as part of my journey over the past three years, I sat down and started reading The Bible from cover to cover for myself. I am not a biblical scholar. I am not anything special. I like to read and I like to look for meaning in what I read. And, I thought it was about time to start reading and studying and learning from the text that seemed to be such an enigma to many. A book that folks like to grab a scripture or two out of daily and post on signs or in memes and gifs. A book that gets taken and applied to both sides of many debates. A book that is used to endorse all sorts of actions and thoughts. A book that is used as a reference to support whatever course of action groups or individuals want to take. And so, I read through The Bible with the Spirit and my love for study to guide me. And what I have taken away from that reading is a little different than what some other folks have gathered from it. And I am okay with that. I am okay with what I believe. I have peace that what I am understanding is based on scripture. I have peace that what I am understanding is based on my reading and study of that scripture. I have peace that what I am understanding is based on taking the Word in its context. I have peace that what I am understanding takes that context and then applies it to my life and times. And I am definitely at peace for getting mocked and ridiculed for that.
So I begin today with just setting the background for why I have arrived at the current place of my understanding. And mayhaps that understanding will change as more is revealed through reading and study of The Bible. And I am sure a lot of things that are unclear and sometimes even disturbing about The Bible may never be clear or less disturbing for me. BUT, I am going to read and study and, most importantly, pray about those things.
I challenge you to read The Bible for what it says. I challenge you to stop reading yourself into its pages and, rather, read about the situations and people within its pages and use their stories and situations to guide your understanding of God. I have learned that a lot of what I was taught in life was misguided. Whether that teaching came from secular or religious teachers, there was some deconstruction that had to occur in my mind to get back to where things got muddied. And I think that if you take that challenge of really understanding why you and I believe what we do, then we will not only have a greater understanding of ourselves, BUT also a closer relationship with God. When I spend a lot of time reading His Word and talking to Him about it, I get to wrestle with shaping my own belief. And there is a lot more power in something that I have internalized by struggle and study than something I was told and repeated.
I pray that through reading His Word I get a better understanding of what He wants for me today. I pray that when I do not know something or when something seems unclear or when something troubles me about His Word that I always seek His understanding. I pray that through studying Him the lessons for who I am to become are made more clear and real in my life. I pray that I internalize His teachings and use those lessons to be a better Ambassador for His Kingdom.
I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!
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