October 01, 2007
Looking for Comfort
Leslie Nease, a Christian Radio Talk Show Host is a contestant on CBS’s Survivor China. In the season opener contestants were welcomed to China in a traditional sense and were asked to bow and kneel before Buddha. Although billed as a non-religious activity, Leslie deserves kudos for not bowing down before any other gods. In the second week of competition a short clip shows Leslie tearfully explaining she misses not having her Bible with her because it brings her such comfort. I can understand Leslie’s feelings, but I wonder if she forgot the Comforter isn’t confined to the pages of the Bible. I pray Leslie does well in the competition, that she is a good representation of Christianity…and that she’ll let the Spirit push her Scriptural recall button.
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Gail;
-----I go through spells of time, sometimes for weeks, that I do not even open a Bible. Almost every Christian who strives for an earnest and meaningful life in the Lord might draw back in horror at that idea, although I am perfectly comfortable with it. My memory is worthless for quotations. I thought I was going to memorize the Bible earlier in my life. Ha, ha. I almost went nuts trying. But my memory is more than adequate for concepts. Now when I read the Bible I read it for concepts, to understand them and to remember them. Part of that understanding comes from putting them into practice. Another part comes from pondering them in the context of everyday life. These activities of study are better done on the street.
-----“So then,” the earnest one might ask, “Why don’t you carry your pocket Bible and read it on the street? Besides, you’re not on the street twenty-four seven. You can still read the Bible every morning after you get up. I do.”
-----I can open the Bible a thousand times and read the same pages and still wonder from where in it an idea came or what it means. I don’t know the technical jargon for it, but I know that I have to search my memory for an idea a few times before that idea will find a accessible place within it to reside. I do a lot of pondering daily about Scripture that resides just beyond the boundary of my memory, but not quite out of sight. Sometime later, maybe hours, maybe days, maybe weeks I will either stumble across or look up the Scripture of my previous pondering, straighten out my memory’s errors, and note the context and location of the Scripture. After a couple such bouts with memory, pondering, and the Word, the passage becomes a part of my casual thinking. And that is valuable to me.
-----I find my time away from the Bible to be productive. Maybe I could more simply illustrate it by referring to the actor on stage. Off stage he must learn the script. But he must lay the script aside and use it from within when on stage. Ms. Nease is on stage now. And I guess the stage is pretty big. God bless her.
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