Dear Rose Park,
According to a 2021 Pew Research Report, roughly a quarter of the American population hadn’t read a book (printed, audio, or electronic) in the past year. I imagine many of us recognize the importance of reading. We know it helps our minds, vocabularies, and worldviews to grow. We know how reading to children helps benefit the development of their brains and social skills. We also know, as Christians, that we should be reading our bibles more.
But I’m willing to bet it’s difficult for many of us to get in and stay in the habit of reading the bible. Even when we do, it seems more like a chore than a delight. We wake up to our alarm and cup of coffee and quickly read the passage of the day in order to ‘check the box’ and move on to more pressing things like getting the kids ready, checking our phone, turning on the television, listening to the podcast, or packing lunch boxes. I wonder though, what might happen if instead of ‘checking the box’ when it came to reading, we marinated in the Word.
We’re approaching the prime months of the years for outdoor grilling and if you’ve ever marinated a steak or chicken, then you know the process. You tenderize the meat and place it in a bag or shallow dish to soak in a concoction of flavors. My favorite is a marinade for steak tacos: soy sauce, garlic, oregano, chili powder, paprika, onion powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, and olive oil. The recipe I follow encourages you to let the meat soak in the marinade for at least one hour, but the longer it sits the more incorporated the flavors become.
What if you approached God’s Word and the spiritual act of reading like marinading? Soaking in the words of Jesus, the Apostle Paul, the Prophet Jeremiah, Ruth and Naomi, Timothy, and St. John the Apostle. What might happen to the way you view the world when the words of Psalm 1 are deeply rooted in your soul? What might happen to the way you serve your neighbor when the words of Micah are embedded into your bones? What might happen to the way you interact in your relationships when the words of Jesus are at the forefront of your mind?
Pastor and theologian Eugene Peterson, in his book entitled Eat This Book, writes, “Readers become what they read. If Holy Scripture is to be something other than mere gossip about God, it must be internalized.” We need to marinate in scripture. We need it to soak through our skin and into our muscles. We need scripture, as Peterson writes, “to enter our soul as food enters our stomachs, spreads through our blood, and becomes holiness and love and wisdom.”
A few weeks ago, we celebrated our 5th grade students and presented them a bible. It’s my hope that they’ll marinate in the Word written, the bible, and the Word made flesh, in Jesus. It’s my hope that the Spirit of God would move in their hearts to inspire a love for scripture. But it’s also my hope that we would set the example for them. This is all to say, pick up your bible and start reading. Read it every day, even just for a minute or two. But then soak in those words all day long. As the Psalmist writes, “meditate on them day and night.” Marinate in them and allow for the flavors of scripture to produce holiness, love, and wisdom.
Grace & Peace,
