Today was a ridiculous day.
I turned up for my day of teaching, expecting the normalnormal with Crofty - currently, systematic theology. Nothing like wrestling the big questions for a bit of a brain stretch. But NO. More than half of our Soul61 crew have gone to south-east Asia for a fortnight, so the syllabus has been placed on hold, and Crofty had us doing what he termed 'exercises'. He gave us 15 minutes to prepare a 20-minute bible study (passage of our choice - I went for the Sermon on the Mount) and then chose two of us to lead the aforementioned studies. I was one of the (unwilling) victims, chosen because I've never before led a bible study. And was silly enough to admit that. In all honesty, I've rarely come across them. Growing up, I was never much encouraged to read my bible, but even since I fell in love with Jesus, I've found the bible study to be a rare beast. The few I have encountered have registered in memory only as awkward affairs, partly out of my introvert-terror of being put on the spot, partly because they've just been awkward.
The twist in this first exercise was Crofty's surprise ingredient: he gave each person in the group a role to play - new Christian, angry guy, the silent type, the girl who's obsessed with relationships, the super-spiritual guy, etc., etc... It was in this environment that I had to lead my first ever Bible study. It was a challenge, to say the least. One guy was so determined to lead the discussion away from anything useful that he asked if I thought Jesus would have used Twitter. (Cue the joke, 'It depends how many followers He had...' Haha.) The consolation I was offered was that no future bible study I lead will ever be that bad. Please Jesus.
After that, Crofty then gave us 20 minutes to write a 7 minute talk on how to give a bible study, and picked two of us at random to give our talks. I have honestly never thought so hard about the practicalities of studying the bible. I like to plop it open and see what I can learn, or pick a book and study that, or drift through Psalms, or spend time in the gospels, or the letters, or... Wherever. I love the Bible. A lot. I love being taken by surprise by some fresh revelation to which Daddy opens my eyes. It is a rich and beautiful text, and one which I will turn to all my days. There is comfort and truth and promise and hope there, as well as things to grapple and wrestle with. And I believe that that is okay. We are not mindless automatons, who blindly accept all that is placed in front of us. We are called to love our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and part of loving Him with our mind is about engaging with His word and working through the hard stuff. No one ever said this was easy.
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