Cookies

I've spent a lot of time not reading the Bible. On top of that, it shows. Primarily, it shows when I approach God, and I realize He already has answers for me that I haven't bothered to seek in His Word. When I really think about the fact that God has given us something that is now in the form of a book--something that some may simply call an historical text, some a mythological text, and then some of us who depend on this book for the sustaining of our lives--it straight up blows my mind. We haven't quite reached the desperate situation of Fahrenheit 451 or The Book of Eli where we want nothing but to fill our minds with every single word in order to preserve the book for future generations, but it is a bit of a wake-up call to read that book or watch that movie and realize how little time we've spent not only reading and memorizing the Bible but studying the Bible and living the Bible. The times I start to feel that God is least accessible are those times I've been so far from the Scriptures that they almost seem foreign to me when I finally revisit them. It's a little sickening how frequently this happens, but I know it happens because I've not been able to get into the mindset of one who truly does "depend on this book for the sustaining of [her life]."

There are a lot of "how to"s out there for reading the Bible, commonly written by pastors and scholars. Here's one, for example. My grandmother has mentioned in her Sunday school class that she finds it particularly effective in her own devotions to read from both the Old Testament and the New Testament in one sitting. My pastor responded to an email I sent him recently with this bit of wisdom about reading the Bible:

"You can read it like a phone book, you can read it simply to make a good grade on an exam (which I did often), or you can read it to feed your hungry soul. This latter way is the only way to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."

This left me wondering how to characterize a hungry soul. The "how to"s and the tidbits I can pick up from my grandmother or my pastor are truly helpful, but what can I get out of these practices when I've been eating too many cookies before dinner and am, therefore, not hungry for the substantial Word of God? How do I make my soul hunger and thirst for the Lord? Well, don't eat the cookies. Sounds simple analogously. By translation, I'm pretty sure those cookies are even harder to resist than literal cookies. Not eating the cookies means not leaning on my own understanding, not leaning on my friends' understandings, not leaning on my family's understanding, not hoping in what I prefer, not letting my faith go blind, and pretty much not putting stock in anything but what I know has lasting purpose and consequence. The thing is, I know that the Bible has lasting purpose and consequence. I've experienced it myself! I know those verses that are particularly relevant to me since they often pop up in my head when applicable. Why am I not constantly searching for more of those?

Cuz cookies are nummy.

It's funny the parallels we can draw between our physical and spiritual lives. Must be some reason why Jesus pointed them out so much...