Back when I was a loyal, church member, I participated in multiple Bible studies and regularly read books by a certain, popular female author/teacher. I lived and breathed and highly valued her interpretation of the Bible. However, over the years, as I’ve experienced and learned more about grace, I started to see areas where I couldn’t agree with her teachings.
Yesterday, this highly-respected teacher, who has the undivided attention of millions of church ladies, tweeted something that, no doubt, put many of those women in chains. She wrote, We wonder why all hell’s breaking loose & a lion’s tearing us to pieces while our Bibles are shut & we spend 5 obligatory minutes in prayer. If I’d read that 6 or 7 years ago, I’d have tee-totally agreed with her. Then, I would’ve been burdened with guilt—because sometimes a mom doesn’t have more than 5 minutes to devote to prayer, much less sit and read the Bible.
Today, though, I understand the content of the tweet for what it is: bondage. It implies that by reading the Bible and spending, say, six minutes in voluntary prayer, we can prevent hell from breaking loose and a lion from tearing us to pieces. Don’t buy it, folks. There have been seasons when I read the Bible every spare minute I had and whispered prayers all day long, yet still experienced all hell breaking loose and felt like I was being torn to pieces. More recently, there’s been a season when I haven’t touched the Bible for months and didn’t bother trying to pray, yet I felt Love and Grace present in my life. (Yes, I know…some of you will say that Satan doesn’t bother people who don’t read the Bible and pray. That’s an entirely different blog post waiting to happen. For now, pardon me while I go roll my eyes.)
Folks, what happens in life is not a result of whether we read the Bible and spend time in devoted prayer. Sure, those actions can bring us comfort and peace in troubled times, but failing to do them is not the cause for cancer or war or depression or any other shit life throws at us. I can’t help but wonder how many people who consistently devote themselves to Bible reading and prayer read that tweet yesterday and feel like they haven’t done enough because their lives are in turmoil due to no fault of their own.
Don’t be fooled: God’s unconditional love and/or hell breaking loose are not dependent on whether we read the Bible and pray. Read the Bible if you want to. Pray if you want to talk to God. But don’t think your behavior in these areas controls what happens in your life or anybody else’s.
