Before the Iron
Curtain fell, people risked their lives smuggling Bibles to the people living
behind its dark veil of repression. There are still nations that prohibit the
free and open distribution of Bibles, and there are still people risking their
lives so that others may have the Word of God. What would we think, how would
we feel, if the Bible were to be suddenly outlawed in the United States?
Yet, which is
worse, to be prohibited from reading the Bible, or to have Bibles readily
accessible that we don’t read? If Bibles were prohibited, we just might wonder
what is in them, we just might desire to read the Bible; as it is, most of us
sense no compelling need to actually know the Bible – and I’m writing about
professing Christians, I’m writing about folks who attend church with some
frequency. Even though we have Bibles, we mostly know the Bible (or think we
do) not through reading and meditating on it ourselves, or in relationship with
others, but we know it second-hand – through what others write and speak, we
tend to know the Bible vicariously through others without the Bible being an
active and necessary and critical part of our own lives on a daily basis.
Put another way,
are we examples of Psalm 1:1 – 2?
“How blessed is
the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path
of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of
Yahweh, and in His law he mediates day and night.”
Do we delight in
the Word of God and do we meditate in it day and night?
It is said that
it takes about 10,000 hours for a person to become really good at a job, a vocation;
based on a 40-hour week, that is 5 years, 5 years to really understand what you
are doing and why you are doing it, 5 years to develop understanding and
perspective. It takes time for things we do and learn to “come together” so
that the sum is greater than the parts – and that is when we really begin to
grow and learn exponentially, that is when we can really begin to help others,
that is when our learning accelerates because we can “see” things that we
couldn’t see before. That is when things become alive and exciting in ways we
didn’t think possible.
Are we investing
our time and attention in reading the Bible? Are we doing this in such a way
that over the course of years it has become, or will become, woven into the
fabric of who we are? The only way to know the Bible is to read the Bible…but
the challenges to do so are many.
For one thing,
we are addicted to outside stimuli – we need to hear noise and we need to see
things moving, we have short attention spans of just a few seconds. How many
times do we look at our phones, even when we are with others…others who should
have our attention? We say we are “multitasking,” when multitasking is, by and
large, an activity that produces poor results – we think we are smart when we
are really becoming more stupid.
We waste time by
watching video that is often (usually?) trash, and I mean trash. Professing
Christians submit themselves to watching sex and violence and other content
which destroys the image of God within mankind – within them – and foolishly
think they can do this with impunity. Others are addicted to so-called “news”
channels which they allow to form their souls – often with vitriol and hatred
and sarcasm and with false promises of political and economic and social
salvation. Dear friends, I don’t care if a news channel is 100% true, which it
is not, it still isn’t the Word of God, it is not Jesus Christ – we are
citizens of heaven, not of earth, why are we selling our birthright for a bowl
of stew?
Then we have the
myth that if we have short attention spans it is because we have a diagnosis
that indicates that a short attention span is beyond our control. In fact, it
seems that there is now a diagnosis for every problem we have, every
difficultly in learning or growing or understanding. The social scientists are now
our priests and we dare not question our priests – especially when they provide
us with excuses and absolution.
Yet, for years
studies have shown the detrimental effects of electronic addiction on the
brains of young people – but we must ignore them, for if we don’t we’ll have to
make changes, and if we don’t ignore them it will affect our marketing and
economy, and if we don’t ignore these studies then parents will have to be
parents and educators will have to be educators and the church will have to be
the church…and adults will have to be role models.
Do we see the
contradictory stupidity in all of this? On the one hand we have studies showing
the harm of electronic addiction, on the other hand the harm is diagnosed as an
innate disability. We are in a downward spiral that has no apparent bottom.
Then we have the
“tyranny of the urgent,” which I think is related to our attention spans.
Everything is urgent so we don’t have time or attention for anything, our goal
is to “check the box” so we can move on to the next box to check. We “need” to
respond to every text, every phone call, every email, without delay – we have
no peace because we choose to have no peace.
Dear friends, if
our lives are to be lives of worshipping the True and Living God, and we are
slaves to the immediate, to the world – system in which we live, to electronic
mania (which years ago a friend styled “electronic cocaine”), then we are not
living lives of worshipping God, we are not presenting ourselves to God as
living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1 – 2).
It also strikes
me that there is little, if no, expectation on the part of pastors that elders,
deacons, and congregations know and learn the Bible, and know what it is to
meet and commune with Christ in the Word. There is likewise, no expectation on
the part of congregations that its elders and deacons know the Bible…really
know the Bible…after all…isn’t that what the “professionals” are for?
However, we can
be encouraged, for our heavenly Father and Lord Jesus deeply desire to reveal
themselves to us through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit is here to help
us. We’ll ponder this in our next reflection.
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