interiorwork: Reading the Bible
Reading the Bible to flourish as the earth shakes
We live in extraordinary times. When more things drive us apart than bring us together. Words most of all. So why the Bible?
Because the Bible is a mighty text that knows about earth shaking. A book that has surely divided us. But equally, a book filled with the power to bring us together.
What the Bible says is important
We are told by many that we must adore, obey and pray to God. God begins by telling us otherwise. We must do simpler things. Actions that are of the nature of humanity.
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These actions make up the simplest of lives. Actions that God does also. God in the most extravagant of definitions. Extravagant enough to hold everyone’s image of God at this very moment.
Surprisingly, this same extravagance which can be seen throughout the Bible could be why reading it is so important. Because in this time of divide, that extravagance opens up the possibility of making room for everyone.
A simple reading of the Bible is important
How is it possible to keep the reading of the Bible simple? After all, extravagance is messy. Certainly, there isn’t a magic eraser to tidy everything up, and if someone offers it to you, decline. But there is a way to see through to where the power of the Bible is hiding. And that is by focusing on the action words illustrated above.
It is the simple actions that can turn the world from a place where abstractions such as love, hope and truth are merely rhetoric to a place where they become real.
The promise is that if we can grasp the sacred nature of the world and all in it and honor that in our simple human actions, all will live extravagantly and the world around us will flourish. And that’s why reading the Bible is so important.
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“And so when we examine a nest, we place ourselves at the origin of confidence in the world, we receive a beginning of confidence, an urge toward cosmic confidence.” Gaston Bachelard