Unfortunately, I think we’ve largely lost the ability to engage over long-form content. Most substantive things in life can’t actually be boiled down to ~180 character social media posts. We have incredibly short attention spans which requires people to shock each other to grab one another’s attention.
Even if no one else reads my blog, I think it will be a healthy exercise for myself to regularly write down my thoughts. This coincides with my desire to get back into reading and thinking about the Bible more regularly. I also care deeply about the form and function of cities and how we design our lives in the context of the city.
Most Christians would probably agree that reading the Bible regularly is a good practice. Even though I consider myself a Christian, I haven’t regularly read the Bible in a long time. I could give lots of excuses, but the truth is that I haven’t made it a priority. It’s important, because it’s how God reveals who he is to us. Some would say it’s the only way God reveals himself to humanity, others say it’s the primary way, and some believe there are many ways God reveals himself to us–through other people, through nature, and even through direct manifestation/revelation. Regardless of your beliefs about whether and how God still reveals himself, Christians can all agree the Bible is important.
And yet, there is still so much baggage with the scriptures and trying to make sense of what it means. The Bible was written across thousands of years, in numerous culture and historical contexts, in various languages–and when we open up the Bible that’s been translated into our present day language as we live in a completely different context, we expect to learn about God and for him to say something meaningful and relevant to us.
I’ve never been a fan of doing highly academic reads of scripture. I appreciate people who do and learning from the insights they get. I don’t think that level of engaging with the Bible is realistic for the average person.
I’m going to try (yet again) to make scripture reading more of a regular practice. My approach will be to humble myself to the text and try to open myself to hear what God may have to say to me. There will be many things I don’t understand or misinterpret because I don’t want to whip out other reference texts, commentaries, etc. to make this an academic exercise - but I approach it in faith that I will experience God through this regular practice. Perhaps similar to the Lectio Divina approach.