Run the Race: Getting Over Myself as I Read the Bible
My pursuit of writing began with a childhood love of reading and an early fascination with words. I enjoyed tedious things like grammar and linguistic history, and although I was academically a very unimpressive student, by the time I was in eighth grade I diagrammed entire passages from books I read─for fun. You read that correctly.
Reading Sacred Texts
As an adult Christian I began reading scripture seriously; but I found myself at a loss for how best to approach the content of the Bible and ascertain its meaning correctly. I considered myself a confident and capable close reader, and applying common approaches for various genres of writing like philosophy, poetry, wisdom literature or history was helpful. It did not, however, prevent me from making errors in comprehension. In How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, the authors discuss the challenges of reading sacred writing, of which ultimate comprehension, unlike other genres of writing, is predicated upon belief. “The faithful reader of a canonical book is obliged to make sense out of it and to find it true in one or another sense of ‘true,’” meaning, the very purpose of reading a sacred text is to discover the truth, which for Christians is personified in Christ.
Getting Myself out of the Way
Mercifully one can have a revelation of Christ as his or her savior and comprehend the plain meaning of the gospel in the New Testament without being fluent in the deepest nuances of the biblical texts. Yet growth and maturity as a Christian demands regular engagement with scripture, and the process of learning to read the Bible is often long and difficult. A major hurdle to comprehension and belief in the truth of Christian scripture is that we approach both endeavors, reading and believing, with a highly developed personalized lexicon comprising words and concepts whose meanings are only partially informed by formal, objective definitions and largely informed by cultural influence and life experiences. Those ideas inform every aspect of our conception of reality, many times in spite of what we claim to believe. Dallas Willard analyzes this phenomenon in Renovation of the Heart:
Ideas are very general models of or assumptions about reality…They are ways of thinking about and interpreting things. They are so pervasive and essential to how we think and how we approach life that we often do not even know they are there or understand when and how they are at work. Our idea system is a cultural artifact, growing up with us from earliest childhood out of teachings, expectations and observable behaviors of family and community.
A simple example of this is how we may respond to reading Matthew 6:25-34, which is Christ’s counsel in the Sermon on the Mount not to worry about the provision of basic needs like food and clothing. Resisting the compulsion to worry is something most people cannot imagine, whether it be related to basic needs or anything else. This means people are going to interpret the meaning of this passage according to their established system of ideas of how the world operates and create an application based on human wisdom rather than divinely inspired wisdom.
In addition to the system of ideas each individual person brings with him or her to reading scripture are the bad reading habits we employ. Many people read as if whatever they’re reading was written to them personally. This is certainly true of how we usually begin to engage scripture, but this approach is incorrect. Scripture is a gift, written for us, but it is not addressed to us, meaning the Bible was not written to 21st century citizens. It was written to Ancient Near Eastern and Greek cultures. But because as Christians we believe the Bible is inspired by God for the revelation of God to all people no matter their place in time, the Bible’s relevance is not limited to its historical point of origin. Because we also believe God is immutable, the meaning of scripture does not change with the passing of time. Opening the door to considerations of historical context allows us to understand meaning and intent from which we can discern faithful application in our own lives today.
This is not an easy process and often leads to an ever increasing number of questions rather than answers, but the truth of scripture is not dependent on our comprehension or our comfort. We must not give in to the temptation to alleviate the tension that reading scripture causes by defining scripture according to modern mindsets. Feeling challenged is meant to be part of our reading experience and integral to the renewing of our minds. How will we know our thinking may not be godly if we render scripture agreeable to all of our opinions? Humility is as vital a reading skill as appreciating historical context. Without humility we may become like some contemporary church leaders and adopt the perspective that some parts of scripture are obsolete, no longer instructive for us today, and can be tossed out of the canon, functionally if not formally.
Allowing Myself to be Formed by God
This leaves the issue of individual feelings of importance or significance towards scripture. Significance is the personal meaning we ascribe to scripture that may or may not accurately reflect the intended meaning of the text. We are meant to have personal attachments to scripture. Most people have favorite passages in scripture; I have several. What endears these passages to us is often rooted in not only the evolving idea system we place on top of scripture, but also powerful experiences of God at work in our lives. These pieces of scripture are like monuments that mark the moments when, like Jacob, we are able to say, “God is in this place.” The power of our personal relationship with the word of God is a wonderful thing and reflects the mysterious and supernatural quality of the living word. However it’s important that we don’t take what God intends for our personal growth and apply it universally to our understandings of theology, doctrine, scripture and tradition. In fact these things should not contradict each other—this is part of what it means to “test the spirits.”
Don’t Trivialize the Word
Related to the idea of evaluating the purpose of significance is a practice I’ve noticed recently where Christians adopt a spiritual word for the year. The word is meant to function like a guiding faith principle or theme over a person’s life for that season of time. A short series of questions on dayspring.com will get you one of your very own. I just did it and based on my answers, my word for 2021 is: believe. My goal is not to make heresy of harmless fun; but the Day Spring quiz illustrates a hurdle we commonly encounter in grasping the purpose behind the moments that create significance in our life with Christ and his word. Any meeting we have with the Lord, whether it be through reading the Bible or otherwise, is intended for one fundamental purpose: to reveal God. It is impossible for the result of a multiple choice quiz wherein I choose from statements designed to help me, evaluate my desires for the coming year, to arrive at a spiritual principle that will disrupt or reform any part of my mind that is not shaped in the revelation of Christ. Why? Because I cannot reveal Jesus to myself. Furthermore, the Lord does not meet us in our circumstances and broken thinking so that we can make a nice memory together. He meets us through his word and presence for the express purpose of removing us from our context and way of being and drawing us into his. It’s in his context through obedience and love of God that we grow in knowledge of God and holiness.
Run the Race
On my desk where I currently sit is a fixture, a phrase written alternatingly on post-its or an index card or whatever scrap of paper is available after the previous one deteriorates. It gets taped or stuck somewhere I can see it when I am seated at this desk. On it is written: Run the race. It’s a reference to the first three verses of Hebrews chapter 12.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
The first time I wrote that phrase down was many years ago. It was an act of desperate determination, a post-it on a bathroom mirror. It was a feeble last-stand against sadness and exhaustion brought on by circumstances in my life that tested the outer limits of my capacity to, frankly, stay Christian. I can tell you with absolute certainty, in that time of my life my eyes were not fixed on Christ. I just wanted to keep running my race. The Lord’s miraculous deliverance in that season seared this passage into my consciousness and over the years he has taught me its true meaning. “Run the race” is a phrase that has personal significance to me. In the moment the Lord brought it to my attention I interpreted it as a call to persevere in the midst of my choices and to work toward my desired outcomes. But God’s revelation of himself drew me out of my understanding of reality and into his true reality and taught me the gift of persevering in his race rather than my own, and it’s been a much easier running ever since.
Maggie Ulmer is Resource Director for Spirit & Truth, Managing Editor of Firebrand, and one of the hosts of Plain Truth: A Holy-Spirited Podcast.