Ben Dockery | Est. 3 minutes

I remember sitting on a crowded living room floor over twenty years ago with twenty plus college students. We waited on the homeowner, Steve, to start his Sunday night Bible study. After a few acoustic worship songs, Steve opened his Bible and off we went. I took notes as fast as I could. Steve seemed like he knew the authors of the Bible - he explained the books and letters they wrote with historical detail and deep personal insight that seemed to light up the room.

The study seemed different from other Bible study experiences. It captured my imagination. It made me curious to learn more. Have you had this experience? Someone starts making sense of your life today by making sense of the ancient Scriptures. It can be a little eerie. It can be life changing.

I still remember one connection Steve made about David. The Bible introduces him as a young, ruddy worker who is out in his father’s field diligently protecting the sheep. No one is watching, yet he works. David does not even make it home for the family meal when God’s prophet arrives to anoint the next king of Israel. Just a few pages before, King Saul was introduced as a handsome young man out looking for his runaway donkeys. Steve told us to pay attention. I had never noticed the detail that Saul lost his donkeys. Why would a biblical author include this? Imagination unleashed. The Old Testament often shows you, not tells you, something you need to learn. We compared and contrasted David and Saul. We traced the trajectories of their lives given their initial literary introductions. What was God doing?

Eugene Peterson suggests that Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God’s activity and less and less attention to our own. We do this by being immersed in the story of Scripture.

Peterson writes, “We enter this story, following the story-making, storytelling Jesus, and spend the rest of our lives exploring the amazing and exquisite details, the words and sentences that go into the making of the story of our creation, salvation, and life of blessing.” Reading is a way we learn to inhabit the world.

Reading rightly requires imagination. We’re tempted to read the Bible for mere information, but that can inhibit the Scriptures from unleashing their transformative power. Professor Kevin Vanhoozer agrees, stating, “My concern is that many Evangelicals are suffering from malnourished imaginations… We want to believe the Bible, but we are unable to see our world in biblical terms… That leads to a fatal disconnect between our belief-system and our behavior, our faith and our life.”

This does not imply only creative interpretations of the Bible are valid or that we need to constantly find new meanings. Quite the opposite. We look to the best of the church’s insights – timeless wisdom – and allow our hearts and minds to step into God’s word and apply truth in fresh ways. 

Modern life requires the integrity of working (often from home) when no one is watching. Your task might be supply chain management, pharmaceutical drug research, truck driver deliveries, or third grade lesson plans. Pay attention. It can be a little eerie to read a morning proverb and realize it applies directly to the business deal of the day. But right reading can reconnect our belief and behavior, and that can be life changing.

On a final note, one of our daughters recently came home from school and told me she learned that curiosity is like the wick of a candle. Once you light it, it can light up the room for a long time.

At Lakelight, the talks we sponsor, the classes we offer, and the articles we highlight are all intended to light the candle of curiosity. 

We hope to spark your biblical and theological imagination so it remains vibrant, even twenty years from now.

© Ben Dockery | This article was first published in Lakelight Monthly, October 2022 Edition