Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Curling up with the Good Book

Like so many other people this last weekend, I anxiously awaited my copy of the final Harry Potter book and at first opportunity curled up with it and plunged into a whirlwind of reading. Unfortunately, because of the need to share with my wife and the need to sleep before church the next morning I was forced to stop with about 100 pages left to go. While I did manage to finish these very quickly the next morning, it was difficult to leave the book in the midst of the climax. Sleep was hard to come by as my mind raced through all that I had read and pondering what was yet to come.

This experience brought to mind something that Don Miller said in "Blue Like Jazz." He talked about a friend of his and her experience reading through the book of Matthew with cigarettes and chocolate. I am sure a lot of people who go to church would not associate a gospel with cigarettes or perhaps even chocolate, both of these are guilty pleasures, borderline sins. I like the idea though of the Bible being something read the same way we might read another book. How often do we just take the Bible and curl up with it in a big poofy chair? Why not? Do we ever read a Gospel from beginning to end, letting ourselves sink into the story and fully immerse ourselves in Jesus' message?

It is different than Harry Potter in many ways, but I think that it is good to remember the Bible is not just the Good Book, it is a good book.

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