Dear Rose Park,
As my family and I prepare to move to Connecticut at the beginning of November, we have naturally begun to pack up our belongings. We are in the very beginning stages of packing, but as boxes begin to fill our dining room, I am realizing that the Waterstone family has acquired a tremendous amount of books.
Look around your home and maybe you’ll realize you have acquired a tremendous amount something else. Maybe for you it’s collectible figurines, various holiday decorations, sports equipment, or maybe just clothes and shoes for every occasion known to humankind. But as previously mentioned, the Waterstone family has shelves upon shelves (now boxes upon boxes) of books. While I’ve been placing books into boxes with the skill of a master-Tetris player, I have been reminded of two quotes. The first is from Eugene Peterson.
There is only one way of reading that is congruent with our Holy Scriptures…this is the kind of reading named by our ancestors as lectio divina, often translated as ‘spiritual reading,’ reading that enters our souls as food enters our stomach, spreads through our blood, and becomes holiness, love, and wisdom (Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson).
The second is also from Eugene Peterson, but he’s referencing Swiss Reformed Theologian, Karl Barth.
Barth insists that we do not read this book [the Bible] and the subsequent writings that are shaped by it in order to find out how to get God into our lives, get Him to participate in our lives. No. We open this book and find that page after page it takes us off guard, surprises us, and draws us into its reality, pull us into participating with God on His terms.
Our approach and reading of God’s Word should not be to merely accumulate information so that we can regurgitate it on those around us. Instead, our approach and reading of God’s Word should be to get it so deep inside our bones and blood that it naturally changes the very fiber of who we are and how we interact with the world.
Too often I hear of individuals either ignoring the Word of God altogether or they’re reading it as if they were reading a textbook, reading the bible to merely garner information to pass a fictitious heavenly admittance exam. Peterson and Barth are encouraging us to read the bible in a different way. To read it slowly. To read it with depth.
As I prepare to transition into a new season of ministry, one of my hopes and prayers for Rose Park is that you might consider reading the bible in such a way that it burrows itself deep in your soul and then manifests itself in holiness, love, and wisdom.
Grace & Peace,
