Below is an article I recently wrote for a magazine our company is giving to youth pastors across the country. Thought some of you might be interested!
The Bible and I have a complicated relationship. I guess that’s normal though, because when you think about it, most relationships are complicated. For that reason, the Bible seems very applicable to my real life. It’s complicated and it’s real.
At 22 years old, the Bible is something that has been in my life for nearly 12 years- almost half my life. It is something that has been a consistent companion at times and a long-forgotten friend on other occasions. There have been times I felt the Bible spoke clearly into the situations I was living through, and there were other times I felt a chasm of silence between me and the Word of God. Through it all, its complications and complexities remain constant.
Through these experiences, I have found that the Bible is a book full of answers. It’s got answers to some of the greatest questions of life, such as: why is there pain or what does love look like. Then there are more subtle answers to some less expansive questions, such as, what was Jesus like and who did he hang out with. The answers to those questions are real and true, and I found them in the Bible.
At the same time, to me, the Bible is full of questions. Read Ecclesiastes and you’ll find question after question, some quite cynical, unanswered and despairing. In the New Testament you’ll hear Jesus on the cross, crying out with a question that, to our ears, goes unanswered. But more than the questions I find already in the Bible, I find the Bible sparks a million questions in my own mind. Questions like, how can that be true, what does that have to do with me, and how could God have let that happen.
In another complicated twist, the Bible is used in our daily lives for some contrasting purposes. In many instances, people use the Bible to judge. It’s used to decide who is and isn’t wearing the right thing, doing the right thing, saying the right thing. People use the Bible to judge who’s wrong, doing something wrong, saying something wrong, agreeing with something that’s wrong or even to decide who is so wrong they could never be fixed.
On the other side of judgment, people often use the Bible in defense of love. People cite Jesus’ words as he tells us the greatest command is to love God and the second greatest is to love people. They use the Bible to defend love above all else, to defend this great God of love and peace.
I find in all of these things a great paradox and great complication. For me, the complication of my relationship with the Bible mirrors the complication in my relationship with my heavenly Father. It is a true and real relationship, marked by complexity, and His book is true and real.
I think if the Bible spelled out the answers to all of life’s questions in a simple seven-step formula, or if it listed all the questions we needed to ask in life, it wouldn’t be relevant because it would be nothing like the complication we find in our lives. If the Bible was less complicated on issues like judgment and love, it wouldn’t hold the ring of Truth when we hold it up to the tricky situations in our own lives.
So what does the Bible ultimately mean to me? What is its bearing on my life? It is the Word of God breathed through the hands of complicated people, speaking to a world full of complications and contrasts. And through all the difficult situations in my life, the incredible joys in my life and even the dull times, the Bible it is the reminder that my God and Father Himself is relevant and true and real to me because through His Word He has revealed that He understands my life and its complications.
I trust the Bible because it doesn’t make far-fetched promises to instantly clear up my situations or misunderstandings. I look to the Bible for guidance because it doesn’t dodge the difficult questions or neglect to provide me with various answers. I want and need the Bible in my life because it is another facet in my relationship with God that proves He knows me and my struggles. It is Truth. And the truth is, God is a mystery, and so is my life.
