i love learning. i
think the best part of graduating from Union's MCS program is that i no longer
have to write papers, but the worst part is that now i have to create the
opportunities to learn on my own, rather than having someone smarter and wiser
say, "hey- this textbook/article/essay/sermon/TEDTalk is awesome and you
will be a better person for having experienced it."
i went to a music
recital at Union tonight with another church member, who introduced me to
everyone around as "a Union grad, times 2!" and so i got to
experience yet again the facial expressions when each person found out my
master's degree has absolutely nothing to do with my bachelor's.
it means i'm a giant
nerd. i love big books. i love reading assignments. i love discussion groups
and questions and interactions, just like i love patient care and needles and
vital signs and IVs. i have accepted my
role, the same way i accepted both degrees- with a flippin' giant smile.
of course, the
absolutely best thing about my favorite ginormous book…
[rabbit trail
conversation starter: since when is "ginormous" a legit word? whose
job is it to update microsoft's autocorrect to recognize it as correctly
spelled, and not put the little squiggly red line under it?]
anyway…. the
absolutely best thing about my favorite ginormous book is that no matter how
many times you read it, there is always more to
learn. (either that, or i'm an idiot who forgets the same things each
time, and realizes them again upon re-reading it). i'm sure personal context is a factor as
well. the bigger factor is that this book's
words are living and active. they
are not dusty and mildewed like ancient archives in a medieval castle. they are
not stale like those maple-flavored cheerios i don't like and that have since
turned to styrofoam. they are alive. they
have relevance to people today, just as they did thousands of years ago.
another "of
course," you can't possibly look at a screen for more than 7.2 seconds
without hearing about covid-19. as if it were the only
thing of relevance to humankind, this strain of respiratory disease has
captured the attention of the globe, causing normally (supposedly) rational
people to lose their minds and buy every last roll of toilet paper in their ZIP
code.
[rabbit trail
conversation starter: what. the. heck. it's a respiratory
disease.]
because for some
reason it wasn't happening before, suddenly people are washing their hands,
covering their coughs and staying home when they are sick. (this is where the
entire medical community simultaneously retches and rolls its collective eyes).
somehow, what decades of flu seasons haven't done, coronovirus-19 has
accomplished. people are paying attention to
their hands, their heads, what they do, where they go, who they listen to.
i'm nearing the end
of 2 kings in my self-study, and am right about 3 kings after 10-ish tribes get
demolished and chained and hauled off to Assyria because of a mile-long list of
abominations and evils. i'm also about 3 kings before the same fate comes to
the remaining 2-ish tribes. right in the middle there is king josiah. great-grandson of hezekiah (one of my
favorite kings), he starts off strong and finishes well. but most of that, i'm
fairly positive, is because something even more astonishing than a virus popped
up out of nowhere and brought a royal young leader to his knees.
his priests were
doing their spring cleaning, which hadn't been done (properly, anyway) for a
number of years, because josiah's dad and grandad were… well, they bring to
mind phrases like, "evil beyond compare." they were colossal
failures, and took delight in murder, intrigue, child sacrifice, the occult,
demon/idol/spirit worship, and more. so it's fair to say that the Temple had
been somewhat neglected for about 75 years (massaseh reigned 55 years, amon
reigned 2, and then josiah reigned 18 before this point).
but during the
cleaning and repairing of the Temple, hilkiah the priest comes across a Book.
he is so excited he rushes to find shaphan the king's secretary and tell him,
"dude, i found a Book." (2 kings 22:8, my words). these priests, who
serve the Living God, and not the pagan idols,
immediately recognize the treasure they are holding in their hands. they
throw down their dusters, lysol and brooms and make the discovery known to the
king, and the entire Book is read to him. and for the first time, the nation of
judah is paying attention to their hands, their heads, what they do, where they
go, who they listen to…
…because some of the
words that made josiah's blood drain from his face were these: "you shall therefore lay up these words of Mine in your
heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand,
and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes… see, I am setting before you
today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the
LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the
commandments of the LORD you God, but turn aside from the way that I am
commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known"
(Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28).
by the time of
Jesus, the jewish religious elite had taken these words so seriously that many
of them literally tied little boxes- phylacteries- containing Bible verses to
their hands and foreheads. even though it turned into a source of snobbish
pride and comparison for many (the equivalent to comparing cars and houses was
comparing numbers and sizes of their forehead boxes), it was a tangible
reminder of those commands that God's people were to follow. what commands? the
command to serve only the One True God, to love Him with everything they have,
say, do; the commands to treat others with love and justice and mercy; the
commands the Living Word to their children; the commands for how to have holy,
righteous, glorious relationships and jobs and families and societies; the
commands to saturate their lives with those living words- basically, the
commands to do the exact opposite of what the past 3 or 4 generations of
hebrews had done.
and how do you keep
those commands? it's not by guessing.
it's not by having "a sincere
heart." it's not by meditating on
positive thoughts, or even listening to those happy prosperity gospel preachers
on tv. it's definitely not by shoving your Bible on a shelf for 75
years.
no, i am not
recommending that you replace your soap with a box of Bible verses.
for the love of all
that is righteous, wash your filthy hands and leave some toilet paper and
sanitizer for other people, too. (you do realize that to not get sick, you need
other people to also not be nasty and to wash their hands as well, right?)
don't be ridiculous.
but i am saying that as long as society is all but
shutting down for a while for a virus that can harm your physical body, you
take the extra free time to pay attention to this other issue that can
definitely damage your immortal soul.
there is absolutely no way to follow God, keep
His commands, worship Him as He should be, or to raise a family well, or to
serve God at your job or hobbies, if you ignore
His Word. there just isn't. God, in His infinite wisdom and grace, chose
to reveal Himself to us in these written Words, and promised Life everlasting
to the ones who paid attention to them. if you hate reading, there a zillion
apps that will read it to you for free.
if you genuinely care about your soul, you will
find the time, the motivation, the willpower, to do it. no, your
salvation is not earned in any way by physically reading the Bible. but
salvation is found there- in Jesus the
Living Word, and in Him alone.
it's not all roses
and sunshine. josiah was immediately convicted when he realized his own sin,
and that of the people he was leading. he tore his robes and lamented. david
was convicted like few we read about- and yet the Living Word kept drawing him
back. the psalms he wrote tell just how much he relied on the Living Word that
he met in the Bible, because even though he was
reminded often of his sin, he was reminded also of the God who forgives
even sinners like himself who turn to Him in true repentance, the God who
breathes Life into dead bodies, makes bread for thousands fall from heaven
every day for decades, and sent His own Son to bear the curse that was meant
for us.
i'm telling you,
even though conviction sucks like a vacuum, this Living Word will breathe into
a life such vitality that one wonders if they were truly living before
encountering Him. Jesus Himself is the
Living Word, the "Word made flesh," and the life He gives is one that
no virus can affect in the least.
