Why I don't study the Bible (much anymore)

Short answer: Stalking is not friendly.

Long answer:
Without going into details other than that I an a sinner saved by the grace of God, I was a stalker for a while. Not in a call-the-cops kind of way, but definitely in a that's-kind-of-creepy kind of way. And when I think about why I, as a bona fide nerd, have turned away from study of the Bible, the best answer I can come up with is that stalking is not actually the same as friend-ing.

I love to stalk ideas. Right now I'm on the hunt to find out what the latest and greatest is on multilingual brains. Exciting stuff. But when it comes to God, at some point I realized that rather than stalking God, I should accept the invitation to be his friend.

In my stalking God phase, I could geek out on Greek verb forms and textual criticism and commentaries and translations and I could tell you a lot about some passage or idea in the Bible, but there was a disconnect between that and submitting my life to Jesus as King. Kind of like knowing when someone would wake up and waiting for the light to go on in their window versus actually, I dunno, meeting up for breakfast.

Eugene Peterson writes books with provocative titles including Eat This Book about which I remember just about nothing except the encouragement to be nourished by the word of God. This for me is the much healthier way to engage the Bible. The Bible is not a mysterious text that I need to intellectually know and master. Instead, it is one way that the infinite God has chosen to reveal his work and nature to me.

First, there are other ways to interact with God; prayer, service, the sacraments like baptism, marriage, and communion, signs and wonders, the list does rather go on. As a cerebral person, I had to learn that God is in my life not my head. Second, God is beyond our comprehension so "mastery" of the Bible will not lead to mastery of God or mastery of our understanding of God. Instead, as the Holy Spirit guides our reading we can be drawn to know our loving Creator in an intimate, meaning close to our hearts, fashion.

This is not to say that no one should study the Bible ever. I have benefited greatly from reading the work of Bible scholars past and present. I assume they have been given a different grace than I and are not creepy God stalkers.

And I think that all believers would benefit from having a few tools to help them understand the Bible which was written long ago for a culture rather different from ours, and that's before you even step foot in the translation wars. A few tools is a world apart from having a dedicated detached workshop.

The great commandments are to love God with everything and to love others as ourselves. This may require the occasional in-depth study, but I think more often it is staying near God, saying yes to Jesus in big and small ways, day after day.