I pause here mid-day to share some thoughts I had while eating lunch and washing dishes.
Yes, I eat my lunch while I wash my dishes these days…
I was thinking about what task I should turn to next, and whether to resume listening to something on Audible. Yesterday I added the NIV New Testament, to balance my CEV Old Testament. I did have the New Testament The Message version, and while it is interesting to listen to, I’m not particularly drawn to it for its depth and accuracy.
It’s been several days since I last put on my Old Testament audio while working, and I can’t seem to get out of Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Genesis, Samuels/Kings and even Isaiah these days.
I was also thinking about another blog piece in progress, and how to approach the topic, which involves dreams.
Then, I wondered to myself…if I resume listening to the Old Testament will I be more under the influence of particular ideas? And, how do we know what to read in the bible?
I know that some people systematically read through the entire bible, repeatedly, as though it was a college text book, perhaps. And there are surely many other guidelines and methods for exploring the bible, and some churches such as the Episcopal and Methodist use a lectionary guide, where some entity has selected daily/weekly readings from the Old and New Testaments and the Gospels. Three things that may or may not be related somehow.
Why?
And then there are those who may randomly open the bible and see where they land.
I think there are many factors that influence the how, what, why and when we read the bible. I don’t think there is necessarily any right or wrong method.
But I do wonder why individuals gravitate toward certain books or passages.
And I wonder about balance…how we can make sure we don’t reduce our understandings of the collection of books we’ve come to know as the bible into lifeless, informative documents that constrain us from the life-giving (even supernatural influence) of these writings or…get so absorbed in the supernatural workings of God contained therein that we mis-read natural aspects of the creation we have found ourselves navigating.
I went through a time period from around 2005 to somewhere possibly around 2018ish or later where I shut down and even intentionally was inclined to dismiss a variety of supernatural things. It wasn’t that I lost my faith in Jesus–far from it–but I think I became quite confused and disillusioned for a variety of reasons.
These days, it seems/feels like God is reviving some of my ways of being in Him that were present from the onset of my conversion in 1981.
It can be difficult to navigate this world. Someone once described supernatural things as natural occurrences that collide with particular prayers, circumstances and states of one’s internal being (soul, spirit, cares, need for direction, need for repentance, needs of many sorts…) in a way that to the individual or group is clearly seen as a supernatural act.
I sometimes think of how we Christians maintain so much hope and belief in what happens beyond our natural death–which has to require the most extensive belief possible in supernatural realities–yet, we can be slow to believe that God is supernaturally active and present in us and in our world in so very many ways, or, present in the scriptures in a supernatural way.
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