Are You Paying Attention?

Over my lifetime I have tricked a lot of people into liking me. However, when it comes to relationships, I think a person who is kind and has a sense of humor has the advantage. I myself have managed to gather many “friends” and “likes” on and off social media through different posts, pictures, thoughts, sermons, blog posts, events, etc. Disallowing the fact that my children are so cute, let's just say it's because I'm awesome! For someone from a graduating class of 37, more people have gotten to know me than I ever imagined (no applause, please).

But of course, most of them know that polished version of me that is displayed through ministry or social media, right?

To truly know me you would have to dig. You’d have to regularly follow me around to see what my life is like. I don’t think you’d discover any deep, dark secrets (though maybe you would). However, there are layers of “me” that you’d get to know only by digging. You’d learn weird things like my complicated relationship with thermostats. You’d find that the first thing I do everyday (almost compulsively) is walk through the house and turn on the three living room lamps, then adjust the thermostat to compensate for the frost that has blanketed everything in my house while we slept. You’d learn that I pretty much wear only plain black T-shirts every day, Sunday through Thursday (on the weekends I get crazy with an occasional gray one). You’d definitely learn that my favorite menu item on the planet is the beef bulgogi bahn mi  from Lucky Tiger. You’d learn which medicine I take daily and which sources of caffeine I use to nullify the potentially life-saving effects of the aforementioned medicine. Yes, you already know me. But you’d get a clearer picture by digging deeper . . . and by paying attention.

The Bible is a lot like me. 

Uh, wait! That didn’t come out right. . . The Bible is layered, I mean! I mean that you might discover one conclusion about a specific truth through your teenage years, and then  over time that conclusion could change as you change, mature, and dig further. The writer of Hebrews was on to something when he referred to the Bible as “alive.”

But we get to know what that means only by digging, and by paying attention. 

Now I don’t say this to brag, but there aren’t many Bible stories you could bring up that I haven’t heard of at least once or twice. But just because I’ve heard of something doesn’t mean I’ve paid attention. And just because I’ve paid attention doesn’t mean I’ve dug. Paying attention to the Bible one time and then expecting all of its nuances and mysteries of faith to resolve themselves is not likely to happen. For me in these past couple years the opposite actually seems to be true. It seems like the more time I spend in the Bible, the more the mysteries grow. After all, the Bible is alive, right?

It is powerful and active.

It is sharp and soothing.

It is strength and humility.

It is peace and division.

It is love and war.

It is forgiveness and sacrifice.

It is clear and ambiguous.

It is alive.

In this stage of my life God is constantly reminding me to slow down and pay attention. And the more I practice this with the Bible, the more I realize that the Bible was never meant to be a rulebook for life or some sort of answer key in the back of a textbook. It seems to me that it might actually be calling us to the One who is behind and beyond the Bible.

Could it be that the Bible’s ultimate aim is to connect us not to the Bible, but to God?

Maybe the journey of God's people recorded in the Bible is meant to create in us a desire to experience that same journey of discovering God. Maybe it’s all meant to lead us on a path toward wisdom and love instead of certainty of doctrine. Could it be that the Word of God is something that is still speaking today, if we would just dig and pay attention.

I say all this to acknowledge that I am paying more attention to the Bible today than in the past. I am paying attention to where it is pointing, to what it might be saying.

I am pausing to ask questions and proclaim answers.

I am praying for understanding and for peace when I don’t understand a thing. I am digging through layer after layer and finding more richness and worth than I could have ever imagined. 

So I ask myself, “How is God speaking to me through His Word lately?” And the conclusion that I come to is that as I pay attention He leads me through the layers of His Word that I might see how they all point back to Him; how they all point to Jesus; how, in some extraordinary way, they all point to Love. Love, not in the way that I understand the word, but in the way that only digging can explain.

But paying attention is not easy. It takes time.

It takes energy (physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially). But, like the man in Matthew 13 who sold everything to buy the treasure in the field, I have found the One my soul has been longing for all along and have decided that paying attention is worth the effort, the cost. So in my joy I choose to open my Bible and pay attention, knowing that His Word is continually speaking, both on and off the page.