A Better "Why" for Reading the Bible

“I grew up with a paradigm [regarding] my relationship with the Bible, that I should daily spend time in it…. I should be able to read a portion of it and then interpret it, apply it to my life, and walk away with having almost mastered that section…. That was the task at hand…. My experience though was that I would open the Bible, read something, and be like ‘what did I just read?’ I would have so many questions and… then I’d feel like a failure and not want to do it anymore. But you have to pretend like you still are.” —Jon Collins, The Bible Project Podcast, Episode 267

I stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes and listening to Jon’s words. Mid-rinse, I set down the still-soapy pan and rushed out to my husband in the living room. Without preamble the words tumbled out, “This guy described exactly how I’ve felt about reading the Bible and the guilt that can come with it!”

Here, have a quiet time

Church camps, discipleship weekends, and Bible studies implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) taught me how to engage in the spiritual discipline of reading Scripture.

The label put on this practice was “having a daily quiet time.” As a leader in my youth group, I sang with the worship team, organized ice-breaker games, and attended outreach events. The responsibilities came with accountability. Youth leaders met with me and asked, “What are you reading in the Bible right now?” or “How is your daily quiet time going?”

The message I took in was clear: There is no space to struggle in your daily discipline of reading the Bible.

I answered their questions. “I’m reading the book of Romans,” but failed to note that my encounter was weekly rather than daily. “My quiet times are going well” and omitted the part about how homework, after-school practices, friends, and even church filled up my schedule leaving little time for one-on-one moments with the Lord.

Tension

The Bible was important. I heard God speak to me through it enough times to recognize its precious value.

At the same time, there were wide swaths of Scripture I didn’t understand. The books of Leviticus and Numbers held the power to bring my Bible-reading plan to a crashing halt. Sections felt dry and meaningless to my 21st-century life. I knew it had meaning, but I wasn’t able to sit down with my Bible, make the connections, and walk away feeling fed and fulfilled. Rather than fail in the eyes of my youth leaders, I kept my struggles to myself and racked up guilt in return.

Fast-forward 15 years. I confess that while Scripture-reading remains an important discipline in my life, it comes with baggage.

This suitcase here carries the accusation, “Those people read the Bible every day, so why can’t you?” And that backpack over there is stuffed with the message, “You should want to read the Bible more than you want to watch Netflix.” I’ve silently carried around this baggage, reluctant to admit the thoughts they contain because I feared what it revealed about me and my devotion to God.

Around the turn of each new year, I would resolve to “do better” in regard to reading my Bible. Inevitably, I would become discouraged, lose my motivation, and leave my Bible closed for days or weeks at a time.

So when I heard Jon publicly admit to these struggles, my jaw may have actually fallen open a bit.

Asking why

I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m a question-asker. I’m the adult who hasn’t lost her penchant for asking “why?” a hundred times in a row like a four-year-old.

As I think about the question, “Why have a daily quiet time?” the answer I come to is “because it’s important.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Well, it’s the Bible. It’s just important.”

It’s the brick wall. The one that doesn’t allow any more questions.

And it’s true—the BIble is important. But as I listened to Jon and Tim on The Bible Project podcast, I finally got a better answer to my question “why?”.

Maybe this “why” will motivate you, as it has me, much more than a daily checklist ever could.

"Maybe this 'why' will motivate you to read the Bible (as it has done for me) much more than a daily checklist ever could." A Better "Why" for Reading the Bible Click To Tweet

The Bible as meditation literature

“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Most authors do not expect readers to re-read and reflect on a book over a period of months or years. And as readers, we’re accustomed to consuming a story front to back and finishing with a full understanding of what the author intended to convey.

Yes, there may be themes and motifs to explore on a second or third re-reading, but the author’s intention is to leave you with the full story after a linear read-through.

The Bible is different. I knew this, but the guys at The Bible Project gave me the language to explain it.

With the Bible, there is an expectation of slow meditation and careful consideration.

When you first look at a painting, you may notice its size, focal point, or colors. The longer you look at it, the more you may begin to notice details you missed at first glance. When you move on to a different painting, you start over and go through the same process of observation. If you return to the first painting after having spent time looking at the second one, you will most likely notice new aspects that are drawn to your attention by comparing and contrasting the two paintings—maybe the use of light, the composition of the subject, or the artists’ techniques.

As a child going to an art museum for the first time, I wondered, “Why is everyone standing and staring? Once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it! What more is there to look at?”

Well, young me, the answer is… lots.

This is how it is with the Bible too. You read a book of the Bible and glean meaning, but the more you read it, the more you notice. And once you move on to another book of the Bible, you’ll gain even more understanding about the first book. This isn’t a coincidence. It’s how the Bible was intended to be read. Again and again, revealing layers of meaning.

An optimistic approach

Reading the book of Leviticus as a teen, I felt hopeless. With little sense of the cultural context or the book’s importance in the larger scope of the story of Jesus, I resolved to trudge through. I made peace with the idea that I would never understand.

Years later, I see a bigger picture and how that one book played a role in the lives of people like Jesus and Paul. I see how their teachings were built on the foundation of God’s Old Testament commandments. I’ve also learned about other ancient cultures and the provision of God that is built into the law he delivered to Israel.

Do I understand all of the Bible now? No way. But I expect I’ll know more at age eighty than I do now because of the time spent living, breathing, hearing, and speaking its words.

If you started the new year with a strong determination to read your Bible daily—excellent! If you find your motivation waning, maybe you can ask the question, “why?”.

My “why” has changed from simply “because the Bible is important” to “because God’s word is changing me and course-correcting my perspective of God, even when I can’t perceive the shift.”

The Bible works (on me)

Hebrews 4:12 promises that “the word of God is alive and active.”

And Isaiah 55:10-11 says, “‘For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it‘” (emphasis, mine).

At the top of the post, I quoted Jon Collins from a podcast. Later in the same episode, he said this:

“Time is the point. [The Bible will] work on me without me knowing how it’s working on me…. That was a paradigm shift for me that felt really, really refreshing. It made me feel less guilty.”

It will work on you too.

Days still get away from me when I don’t spend time reading the Bible, but I no longer feel defeated by the absence of a checkmark on my to-do list. And there are still days when I close my Bible and think, “What? I’m not sure I understand.” But I’ve found freedom from guilt and comfort in the midst of confusion knowing that Bible-reading is a life-long endeavor—one that gives up its treasures with patience, time, consideration, and conversation.

"I've found freedom from guilt and comfort in the midst of confusion knowing that Bible-reading is a life-long endeavor—one that gives up its treasures with patience, time, consideration, and conversation." #meditate #bible Click To Tweet

Be sure to check out these podcast episodes for more information about the Bible as meditation literature:

Does this change the way you think about reading the Bible? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!