I like to underline passages of Scripture that have meant something "important" to me. My Bible is filled with highlights and underlinings - but it has come to my attention (as I am sure it would have to yours!), that the danger of this is that we can easily let our eyes go back to those passages when we begin to read - as opposed to allowing God to give us fresh insights in new places.
It's so easy to live in this place of wanting to experience God the way we did a year, 5 years or 25 years ago. In the same way as we "camp" at underlined passages, we can camp at past experiences. We compare how we experienced God then, and measure him up against what we are experiencing now - and sometimes we think He is not performing up to our expectations. This can be so dangerous to us if we are not aware of it happening (I think), because we can completely miss out on today!
(a) I could make the print bigger and
(b) It's lighter in my bag!
HOWEVER, a third and possibly even better reason has surfaced - there are no highlighted passages of mine, no notes in the margin, no dates to remember events.... and so I am finding that I am reading passages I have not read in ages, I am "finding God in unexpected places" (to quote the title of Philip Yancey's book!) and it's good!
Don't misunderstand me, we must never devalue past experience since all of our experiences in Christ remind us of His faithfulness, they build our faith, grow us and shape us, but I do believe that if we are not careful and keep on camping in the same places, we can (a) become dissatisfied with God for not meeting us where we want him to (based on the past), and (b) become comfortable with what we (think we) know and lose out on fresh expressions and insights that this awesomely creative God can share with us if we are willing to move away from our expectations and spiritual comfort zones and just trust him.
Don't misunderstand me, we must never devalue past experience since all of our experiences in Christ remind us of His faithfulness, they build our faith, grow us and shape us, but I do believe that if we are not careful and keep on camping in the same places, we can (a) become dissatisfied with God for not meeting us where we want him to (based on the past), and (b) become comfortable with what we (think we) know and lose out on fresh expressions and insights that this awesomely creative God can share with us if we are willing to move away from our expectations and spiritual comfort zones and just trust him.
So, all that to say this actually... I am loving having my Bible on my Kindle! :)
| Sometimes we think we know what we see but with another look, we could see the same thing, differently. |
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