Boring old Bible

Your statutes are wonderful;
therefore I obey them.
The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
I open my mouth and pant,
longing for your commands.
Turn to me and have mercy on me,
as you always do to those who love your name.
Direct my footsteps according to your word;
let no sin rule over me.
Redeem me from the oppression of men,
that I may obey your precepts.
Make your face shine upon your servant
and teach me your decrees.
Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
for your law is not obeyed. (Psalm 119:129-36)

Of all the things I might do with my life, I want to help women understand the Bible. I always find it hard to pinpoint why or to explain it in more captivating language. Not until I hear someone (like my pastor) boldly and faithfully proclaim its stories and truths, not until I hear someone get it all wrong, do I even remember the depth of my passion. For I really, really do care about this stuff. I feel so happy and glad when someone speaks truely, and so deeply troubled and disturbed when they get it wrong. I guess it's partly a personality, partly a 'gifting' thing - I'm the type who gets off on thinking and reading, so of course I was always going to appreciate the Bible. But it's a Christian thing too, and something I have grown into. I remember reading Psalm 119 as a newer Christian and it not striking any chords. I wanted it to, but it just didn't yet. But now I read it all and shout amen. So why do I care about this Book?

No doubt a significant reason is that I never knew anything like it before. Well, I always owned a Bible, but it meant nothing to me until I was shown that it might and did. I guess through my life I was looking for knowledge, looking to be streetwise, to live according to what was there, not according to some story, however glad or sad. Perhaps because I've experienced a fair whack of hypocrisy, I've always sought to live truely. For a long while I thought that meant dispensing with a grand narrative and ideas of Good and Bad. So when I became a Christian and realised that God had explained so much to us, I loved it!

For this is how I see the Bible: the very words of God, telling us about himself, the world, the history of man, giving us direction and truth. I still wish to live according to reality, not my foreshortened, culturally palatible version of it. I know my mind is small and I'm culturally-bound, so it's been my desire to submit to God. I haven't always liked every point of his Scripture and oftentimes the words have left me cold, but I was always been sure they were true. And so I prayed hard and worked hard to live that way, to embrace those truths, and they have sustained me.

It's not just that I thought the Bible was true; I have also been pushed along by my desire to live as well as I can in this short life. From the beginning of my new faith, I could see the value of man, I knew that it matters how we live. As the pinnacle of God's creation, we were made to live in righteousness, beauty, truth and great richness, and, when we failed at that, we were redeemed and changed so that we might do it properly. We're not nothing, our actions aren't nothing, this stuff - these decisions we take each day, what goes through our minds, what motivates us - this stuff matters.

But more than anything, I care about God's honour. So I want to know what he has to say to me. I want to live in a way that shows that what he says is true, and good.

Besides, once you have encountered God and started to comprehend that he is GOD, once you have been saved by him and started to understand just what happened, what else is there to do but to give your life over to him, to devote yourself to knowing him and following his ways? How can his Word not be everything to you?

And as I have lived this way, I have never been disappointed. These things that were supposed to be true and dependable have proven so. Sometimes they have been shocking and hard, but they have never failed me. God knows what is real and what is good, for he made it so. He is to be trusted in this. Life lived this way brings great harmony, purpose and security, even in the unhinged, confused times, because true things keep on being true however hollow they sometimes sound. More than this, his Word brings life. The news of Jesus' deeds brings life, abundant and eternal. Such is the value of these words.