Kedo Peseyie
Firstly I would like to propose that reading is a very important aspect of discipleship. Of course, there are some illiterates who can make the most of their circumstances by seeking to learn all they can about the Bible through sermons and discussions with other believers. But for those of us who can read, there is no excuse.
In an age such as ours where technology rules, feeling has replaced thinking and viewing has replaced reading. What we view with our eyes greatly influences how we feel, but it seldom gives any good idea worth thinking about. Hence, many young Christians live by the dangerous trend of basing their Christian experience on images and feelings. These feelings and images are fleeting, and so is their commitment.
We urgently need to recapture this old-fashioned discipline of sitting in a hard wooden chair and table with a good book, away from the attractions and distractions of sounds, images, and let me add, social obligations. Social obligations are a good thing. But in our Naga society I am afraid we often take them too far making it the most dangerous enemy to study and meaningful reading. It is not uncommon to see a church worker who is so engrossed in community, social and religious obligations that he has no time to devote to proper study, which is one very important ingredient of effective ministry. It is not good stewardship of time and resources to give leftover time to study and reading of good literature. John Wesley, the great preacher and theologian of the olden days, often admonished his students saying, “If you don’t read, please get out of the ministry”.
Let me also add that reading is dangerous because it directs your thinking. It sets you off in a particular direction. Very often it could be in the wrong direction if you happen to pick the wrong book. And as you go on picking up bits and pieces of philosophies and principles others have discarded, your feet gets heavier and your mind gets muddled. You are confused which to take along, and which to discard because they are all so different, and seen separately, they do make some sense too. You may have picked up a lot of things, but they don’t seem to fit into each other. They only make your journey harder and your load heavier. The path you’ve chosen doesn’t really carry you on as you expected, but you carry your path and your back’s about to break. Actually that’s a good sign because then you know that it’s time to go back and start over again.
But you need to choose well this time. You need to choose a path that will carry you. You can often close your eyes and let it take you where it wants you to go. The bits and pieces you pick up fit into each other so well. But you also know which to discard when they don’t fit into the larger frame. There is no heavy load on your back. But the path is before you and you walk briskly. You can run, and you feel you can even fly sometimes. You are very grateful that you picked that book which led you to this path. You are now having a relationship with that book. You are in love with it. You could abandon yourself in it, and yet trust it completely to carry you on until you reach the ultimate destination.
Of course, that is the kind of devotion we dare give to only one book—the BIBLE. I am yet to see a Christian who is truly growing in faith and knowledge without having a disciplined habit of reading and interacting with the Bible. But sadly, many in our generation have given this place to other books.
I was not really surprised to find a Christian who referred to this little book titled “Notes to Myself” as “her bible”. What I found inside the book was nothing but musings of a man lost in his wanderings and wonderings, experimenting with the bits and pieces of discarded ideas and disconnected beliefs. I have also encountered Christians who think that the likes of Shiv Kera, Zig Zagler, et al, are more relevant and make more sense than the Bible. Positive thinking, self-esteem, self-confidence. Big terms. But you only need to see those crazy, jumpy fellows at the early stage of American idol to see the ugly face of self-confidence and self-esteem gone wrong in a culture where Biblical values are obsolete. Idolatry? Apostasy? No necessarily. I think it’s just a vain attempt to be intellectually trendy at the expense of intellectual integrity and being intellectually honest.
Then what about the Bible? Yes there are other books we need to read too. But the Bible is the only book which should be allowed to direct our thinking and determine the path for us. I love to read a little more than I hate to talk. I like to interact with the characters in a novel, or the ideas in a book. I do the same when I read the Bible and the outcomes of this interaction are often wonderful. It’s like a relationship. I ask and it answers. The Bible challenges and I respond. Often this happens when I go jogging in the morning (mind you, not every morning!). I often take small cards where I write down a passage from the Bible and try to memorise as I jog or walk. I break them down into points. I try to decode the voices of the words. What is it trying to say? What will it mean when I meet the people on the streets? What will it say in a critical situation where a decision is needed? What does it say about God? And so on. I don’t mean a hurried quiet time to appease your guilty conscience. I mean a deep engagement with the text.
This lively interaction with the Bible is important. To help us more, let me share with you a form of Bible reading which was developed in the middle ages by the Christian monks in the monastic setting. It’s called Lectio Divina.
Lectio Divina
(Extracts from the book: Habits of the Mind by James W Sire).
Given below are some relevant aspects of Lectio Divina taken from its Medieval context.
1. Preparation: first, select a passage or a book. Not just random passages. Following an entire book (eg: Jeremiah or Corinthians) is an excellent way to order your reading. Remember, it’s the deep engagement we are working toward.
Second, find a place where one can be alone and quiet.
Third, approach it in the right spirit. Suggested prayer before you start: Lord, you have promised to meet those who seek your face. Come and reveal your presence to me as I make myself present to you. In the name of Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
2. Attentive reading aloud: reading aloud fixes it better in our minds and hearts because with our eyes we see the words, with our mouth we read aloud, and with our ears we hear the Word. It involves the body and it further strengthens the will to obey. Of course it’s not the body involvement that gives power. It’s the Holy Spirit who dwells in the body.
3. Attentive rereading in silence: rereading is a vital part of any good reading. No matter how brilliant a person is, he always discovers more when he reads it a second time, a third time, a fourth and so on. Read and reread, sink into it and allow the living Word to do what it has to do in your life. This also means studying it.
4. Entering the world of the text: the impatient reader jumps to a fast and usually incorrect conclusion by asking “what does the Word mean to me today?” It is important to study the intentions of the original writer and readers or hearers of the Bible. Only then we are safe to ask, “What does it mean today?” And this we musk ask.
5. Prayer: Lectio Divina is also called a “form of prayer”. As we engage with the Word, there will be a lot of answering to do. But be honest. Words of anger and frustration are often the best words because they are the truest. The psalms can help us immensely here. There is no human emotion not present in the psalms. And I believe that’s the reason the psalmist’s relationship with God shines. Read them with attention. Pray them with understanding. Try converting a passage you’ve read into a prayer. “Prayer is the way we work our way out of the comfortable but cramped world of self into the self-denying but spacious world of God. It’s getting rid of the self so that we can be all soul”.
6. Re-entering the ordinary world: the proof of lectio divina actually comes at this point, for it is how we live in the ordinary world that determines whether we have lived in the world of Scripture. This is where we bring in the connection between the Word and the world. We must try to shape our ordinary world with the principles and values from the Bible.
May whatever years we have left be characterised by lectio divina!
