"I will not neglect your word...Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law." Psalm 119:16 & 18
Life's aha moments often come as the result of things we've ignored or neglected to do. These moments often serve to remind us of more serious things we need to do. I've had two of these moments lately.
The first came when I drove to a nearby town to teach a class for a leadership training. It was held at a church I had never attended. It was early in the morning when I left home and I neglected to write down the directions. I just had a general idea where the church was. Hard fact is...a general idea won't get you there. When I realized I had no clue where to go, I flew into a tizzy, stopped at a Burger King, and after much waiting, got directions from a young man who had to look it up on his computer. And here's the dumb part...I have On Star in my car. All I needed to do was punch the blue button and get turn by turn directions. I forgot to use the technology I am paying for. Wasted money, wasted time, wasted knowledge.
That morning led me to resolve to learn to use the navigation system in my car. I made an appointment with the man at the dealership who could explain to me all the gadgets on my car dashboard. I just had never made the time to learn the finer points of my vehicle. It's so simple it's embarrassing. I've owned the car for over a year. Wasted time, wasted knowledge.
You know where I'm going here. Have you ever read a passage in the Bible that so totally spoke to a situation in your life and if you had read it sooner it would have saved you a bunch of grief? And you realize...you don't need another Bible Study, you don't need to listen to another preaching series. Those are wonderful things but you know you need more. What you need is simply to study the Word every day until it's instilled in your bones. Everything you need is right there in that Book. You don't need to read merely for information or because you're looking for chill-bump emotional inspiration. You need to read it for transformation. You need to read it so its directions are clear in your head...so you know without thinking which spiritual buttons to push when your life needs a lift and direction. In short, it needs to change your life.
Feel the Breeze: A Bible that isn't read in its pure and simple form for the Life transformation it offers is knowledge wasted.