Listening in.

I recently attended a twelve-step recovery meeting where a gentleman spoke of his very special Big Book.* It originally belonged to his brother and was filled with underlined phrases and notes scribbled in the margins. It was as if his brother was guiding him down the path of sober living. Given he died a few years earlier, the guidance was all the more poignant. “The words are like fingers pointing the way,” his brother described. “It’s like he’s whispering in my ear.”

 “Pay attention to this.”

“I know exactly what this feels like!” 

“Could be describing my life.”

“Boy is this true!”

I couldn’t help but think of the Bible and how similar its books are to the one being described in the meeting. It, too, was written to pass along important information. Its authors were emphatic and made sure to point out when we should pay particular attention. They, too, did this to point the way for those who would come after.

To read the Bible in this way seems to make it more personal. Frederick Buechner described it as a group of people standing outside while people like you and I look down from windows above. Those outside see something they desperately want us to see.  They point and shout, hoping we will get a sense of what is beyond our sight. Sometimes the voices are confusing, the gestures distracting, but their emphatic efforts are like fingers pointing the way down the path of faith. They want us to know what they know.

Too often the Bible is worshiped and not read. Described as “The Word of God,” we lose the sense that it has come through people like you and me, people who, like the original owner of the Big Book, have lived life and come to learn important things. They have seen things they want us to see. They have describe life beyond our vision. We need to pay attention to what is underlined and the scribbled in the margins. It’s like they’re whispering in our ears.

* The Big Book is the general text of Alcoholics Anonymous