My Favorite Bible
My favorite Bible is a piece of shit... as far as books go. My favorite Bible is long devoid of the hard brown cover, and my favorite Bible ends at Revelation 18:12.5. It has consistently spoken the truth to me for years. The truth I find in my Favorite Bible, tattered and worn from hours of being read, forgotten about in bed and slept with, shoved onto tight a shelf amongst fellow volumes and, most often, tossed on the floor - providing easy reach for the next reading, has been painstakingly pondered.
Omnifarious seasons pass exploring the well traversed yet unknown depths, while knowledge accrues then disseminates as soon as you realize an old, familiar passage doesn't mean what it used to.
Today I realized that Luke 17:34 isn't talking about the rapture, as I was taught growing up. It's talking about people who will die, and who will live. I feel stupid even saying that. It seems so obvious.
I like the fact that I can honestly say I have a favorite Bible. We have many Bibles, a Book of Mormon, the New World translation (blech!) and I want to get a Koran just so I can see what it says. Have you ever heard a pastor challenge the congregation to get that Bible off the shelf and actually read it? I heard that once when I was a youth and lamented because I knew it was right but I was really just interested in spending my time in alternate ways. Later, I heard that sermon again and felt smug because I had been reading my Bible... you could call it sophmoritis... and then later, when those feelings of smugness arose I would remember that it's not under my own power that I accomplish anything. So, thanks, God. And thanks to Ted for being my Bible Buddy.
And thanks to my little brown, beat-the-fuck-up, ever loving and loyal NIV. We may not always agree, but you have been there for me, Buddy.
My favorite Bible is a piece of shit... as far as books go. My favorite Bible is long devoid of the hard brown cover, and my favorite Bible ends at Revelation 18:12.5. It has consistently spoken the truth to me for years. The truth I find in my Favorite Bible, tattered and worn from hours of being read, forgotten about in bed and slept with, shoved onto tight a shelf amongst fellow volumes and, most often, tossed on the floor - providing easy reach for the next reading, has been painstakingly pondered.
Omnifarious seasons pass exploring the well traversed yet unknown depths, while knowledge accrues then disseminates as soon as you realize an old, familiar passage doesn't mean what it used to.
Today I realized that Luke 17:34 isn't talking about the rapture, as I was taught growing up. It's talking about people who will die, and who will live. I feel stupid even saying that. It seems so obvious.
I like the fact that I can honestly say I have a favorite Bible. We have many Bibles, a Book of Mormon, the New World translation (blech!) and I want to get a Koran just so I can see what it says. Have you ever heard a pastor challenge the congregation to get that Bible off the shelf and actually read it? I heard that once when I was a youth and lamented because I knew it was right but I was really just interested in spending my time in alternate ways. Later, I heard that sermon again and felt smug because I had been reading my Bible... you could call it sophmoritis... and then later, when those feelings of smugness arose I would remember that it's not under my own power that I accomplish anything. So, thanks, God. And thanks to Ted for being my Bible Buddy.
And thanks to my little brown, beat-the-fuck-up, ever loving and loyal NIV. We may not always agree, but you have been there for me, Buddy.
4 Comments:
my fave is my "beginners bible". it's New living test. and that's good because it's in an english structure that i actually speak. it's is also not filled with a bunch of gobblety-gook commentary from a bunch of americans who don't know WTF
I have a little black bible that I cannot read cause my eyes are shit, I've got one on audiobook though, you should try that. bible while-u-sleep :)
Haha! Is that the one from The Simpsons, (was it narrated by Morgan Freeman or Patrick Stewart?) Oh, man... Morgan Freeman... all of a sudden his voice popped into my head saying, "The Poop that took a Pee"
I watched that episode this morning!
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