Why I Started Reading the Bible

Opening Question: What AREN’T you spiritual? Do you find it uninteresting, time-consuming, or difficult to understand? Safe space to talk about this! 

 

What I was Interested In:

• At your age, I realized that understanding other people is important (e.g. loan officer, college admissions) but REALLY hard (e.g. first relationship, “see it from my side” is bad advice cuz it trivializes the difficult task of empathy)
• To alleviate the pain of others or learn something that will help alleviate my own pain, I dedicated myself to understanding how others perceive the world.
• To find answers, I majored in neuroscience, took a field of study in Psychology, did research….
• The last place I thought to look for answers … was the Bible

 

Why Wasn’t I interested in the Bible?

• At this point, I had never sat down and really read it. 
• I heard it from TN though, but when you only hear the 5 minute version of the Biblical stories, they’re just kind of … weird. 
  • “God created the sun, moon, and stars on Day 4!” 
  • “If your own hand causes you to sin, cut it off!”
  • Deuteronomy 22:11 - "You shall not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together"
• So that was my perception: sometimes great, sometimes weird, sometimes problematic, but definitely way too long for me figure it out
• This attitude towards the Bible and the church as a whole led to my spirituality turning into something that was confined to Sundays mostly 
• Close your eyes. If you feel like this accurately describes you, raise your hand. No judgment.

 

Immanuel Kant’s Dove 

• He describes a dove that’s flying through the air and feeling the wind resistance against his wings. The doves goes, “If it wasn’t for this air, I’d be able to fly so much better.”
• That’s how I used to feel about spirituality, something that was nice but contained in my life. I didn’t really realize spirituality was all around me in our society and a huge reason for my existence that shaped who I am today.
• So what made me change my mind?

 

A Commercial

• To set the scene, I was sitting in the library alone, studying for the MCAT for some hours. And that heart-sinking feeling set it in, and I went, “I should have started studying a lot earlier. And I knew that! So what am I doing?” 
• At this point, there was a YouTube ad that came up while I was listening to my Lofi livestream. Hillsdale College was advertising a free online mini course that was released on Genesis. 
• I thought, “Why not?” It’ll take my mind off something other than anything medical.

 

Interesting Points of Genesis (Challenge the kids to see who can find it fastest)

 

At this point, I realized that in just a couple of paragraphs, the Bible pointed out things that took me years to internalize like … 

• how to empathize
• how damning loneliness can be
• the fact that humans are a truly unique species compared to the rest of the world
• how frequent it is for humans to not take responsibility for our actions, etc. 

 

One thing that still bothered me since I was a child was this. It all went wrong when Eve ate the apple, but what was so bad about knowing what’s good and knowing what’s evil? Why was it so bad that he banished us them out of paradise, called it original sin, and why would it affect all of us? It almost feels like a setup (i.e. “don’t push the big red button. Oops now you’re condemned”). 

 

It dawned on me when the professor said God banishing them from Eden was not a punishment but a blessing:

1. God was training mankind to take care of Eden. 
2. God didn’t create the trees for no reason. He must have intended to give Adam and Eve those fruits of knowledge and life when it was the right time. 
3. But Adam jumped the gun. Now he knew what was good, knew what was wrong, but  because he never ate from the tree of life, they still lacked the strength to choose a good life

 

And I realized … that was me. I knew what was good for me but somehow I don’t do it. And it’s not just me. That inadequacy (that feeling of not “being enough”) is something that all humans experience. We feel this original sin in our psyche all the time. 

 

4. Therefore, God wanted Adam and Eve to take care of paradise, but if they stayed, they would have ruined it and themselves. Thus, he had them leave. 

 

Lucky for us, God gave us someone to turn to so that we find the strength to do the right thing.

The Point:

• Some people have spiritual awakenings and turning points. That wasn’t really me. But this was the start of a gradual realization because the more I read, the more I realized that the wisdom of the Bible doesn't stop there. 
  • So the story of Adam and Eve explains Why Humans Suffer 
  • How Do Humans Respond to Suffering?  - Well, that’s the story of Cain and Abel
  • What happens when suffering is widespread? - That's the story of Noah and his ark and how God still manages to protect the little bit of good, even in a vast sea of evil 
  • There’s a natural reasoning that unfolds as you go along! 
• A lot of people shy away from church because it doesn’t seem like it would understand them. (i.e. how do you know what I should be doing? You don’t even know me.) But that’s the thing: The bible isn’t just prescriptive. It’s descriptive. It describes how humans are wired and why we go through what we go through. 
• And the accuracy and the profundity with which the Bible does this convinces me that this book isn’t just propaganda or good life lessons. The Bible had to have been inspired by something bigger than us. 
• Now it’s not like I have now read the entire Bible but the reason I joined HS is because I want to talk about this stuff and I don’t want you guys to wait until your twenties to realize what I did. You guys could have a head start. To be clear, I don’t want to force you guys to read and talk about the Bible because if you force a bible study, it kind of devolves into fake BS, and I don't want that. I want you guys to be genuine. And so the other HT’s and I have been talking about how to give you guys opportunities over the next semester about how to best share anything that you may have learned or experienced reading the Bible or a good sermon. I’ll attach some resources on places you can look for this kind of stuff to the lesson outline I’ll post later.
• Any questions before we wrap up?

Ending Quote: “The church is not a museum for saints, it is a hospital for sinners”

• You shouldn't feel like you have to read the Bible because God is like America's Got Talent and God's on the lookout for the holiest of the Holy. 
• The Bible and the church isn’t meant for that. It’s meant for people like you and me. People who struggle and are still just trying to figure out who we are, who we ought to be and what we ought to do. The Church is the hospital to which we bring our ailments and to listen to God.
• In a hospital, when you have a medical problem, one of the things you should do is pick up the phone and see what the doctor has to say. In a spiritual crisis, the Bible is your phone! So consider picking up the Bible and see what God has to say. After today, hopefully I have encouraged all of you that no matter who you are, no matter how late in the game it is, whenever you're ready. Go ahead. Pick up the phone. Because I think I hear Him Calling You. 

 

 

Resources:

• Bible Project
• Word on Fire by Bishop Barron  
• Ascension Press’ Podcasts (Catechism & Bible in a Year) by Fr. Mike Schmidt