Have you ever sat down to read the Bible?
If you have, have you ever had a time when it seems you feel more uncomfortable after you've read than before you've read?
Does the Bible ever mess with you?
Just the other day I opened to the Sermon on the Mount. It was one of those days when things just seemed to be going perfect.
Comfortable
I read half way through Jesus' teaching when I stopped. Something didn't seem right. The perfection and comfort I had, suddenly turned cold, stale, and lonely.
I closed my Bible and began to meditate, pray, and focus on God.
For the rest of the day my spirit hurt. I was hard on myself. I saw myself as a failure. I saw myself as a person who lacks something.
Distant
Later that night, I was read through Isaiah 6. Verses 5-7 vibrantly jumped off the page:
"Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among of people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."
"Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the alter. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'"
It is when Isaiah is exposed to God when he realizes how dirty, how unclean, how distant the rhythm of his being is compared to that of God.
In that moment, the angel atoned his sin with a coal from the alter of God.
This Jesus
He atoned sin, canceled guilt and taught us how to live so we may begin to live in rhythm with God.
So
When we feel distant, stale, unclean, and uncomfortable; we have hope and believe that Jesus has shown us the Way.
May you continue to follow Jesus' way regardless of how you feel. May you live in rhythm with God. May the scriptures continue to mess with you, humble you, and make you realize your dependency in Jesus. May the comfort and perfection you feel in yourself dissolve away as you expose yourself to the living God.
