How to Read Scripture

Perhaps it's because we're living with the lens of modernity firmly in place, or maybe it's that we're selfish creatures more concerned with our own problems and dilemmas than anything else, but I think there's a tendency among our generation to reduce the Bible and other religious texts to mere answer guides rather than literary narrative works. We are really good at submitting queries to God about our current circumstances, but are rarely interested in sitting down and having a meal with Him, enjoying His presence and His story.

Honestly, we have a tendency to do this with a lot of our relationships. We're in them for what we get out of them- whether it be encouragement, insight, companionship, or the chance to yield some authority over another individual. And while none of these are inherently evil (we should find encouragement & companionship within relationship) if they usurp the primary position of our affections for the other person, then the relationship becomes one of utility rather than kinship and love.

To be sure, reading for utility has its place. My wife, for instance, queries her DSM-IV whenever she comes upon a situation where she's not sure how to diagnose a mental health issue (or how to treat it). She brings the symptoms and background information to the text along with the question: what should I do? And since the DSM is an excellent reference guide for mental health and mental illness, she can often find an answer to the situation at hand.

She wouldn't, however, consult Karen Kingsbury's novel A Time To Dance if she were trying to figure out how to counsel a client who was dealing with divorce.

Reading this book for the purpose of learning about divorce would be frustrating because the story gets in the way and the issues are cloudy. Instead, Beth read this novel because she wanted to get to know the characters and get wrapped up in their story. She read the novel because it's enjoyable. She read the novel because she liked the other things that Karen Kingsbury has written and trusted that this book might also be interesting and engaging.

And something happened when she finished the book.

Somehow, in the midst of story, she actually did figure out some things about divorce and human nature- things that she might not have discovered if weren't engaged with the story and the narrative that Kingsbury was telling.

Too often, we approach scripture like the DSM, instead of like a story. This isn't to say that the Bible is a myth or a fictional account, but rather that when we approach the narrative style of the Bible while pretending or assuming that it's a reference guide, we're going to be disappointed. Scripture isn't a prescriptive set of rules and regulations that answer our questions. Scripture is a story- a narrative about people interfacing with God. We have to read scripture with this lens and enjoy learning about the Story of God rather than merely the answers to the questions we have.

You'd be surprised how many things you'll discover about God and about yourself when you simply allow the story to wrap around you and forget about the questions that are burning in the back of your mind. And be ready to be amazed when the story you find yourself in makes an awful lot of those questions irrelevant and unimportant.