Isn't It Strange

Isn't It Strange

My Mum sent this to me via email yesterday. Although it was fully peeveable because it was gapped and in all it's forwarded a hundred times glory, I read it, and now I am sharing it. I have edited out the mandatory guilt trip that is always at the end of these types of things, and reformatted it so you'll have an easier time reading it.

Isn't It Strange?

Isn't it strange
how a 20 dollar bill seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church,
but
such a small amount when you go shopping?

Isn't it strange
how 2 hours seem so long when you're at church,
and
how short they seem when you're watching a good movie?

Isn't it strange
that you can't find a word to say when you're praying
but..
you have no trouble thinking what to talk about on your cell phone with a friend?

Isn't it strange
how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible
but
how easy it is to read 100 pages of a popular novel?

Isn't it strange
how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or games
but
they do whatever is possible to sit at the last row in Church?

Isn't it strange
how we need to know about an event for Church 2-3 weeks before the day so we can include it in our agenda,
but
we can adjust it for other events in the last minute?

Isn't it strange
how difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share it with others;
but
how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip?

Isn't it strange
how we believe everything that magazines and newspapers say
but....
we question the words in the Bible?
 
Isn't it strange
how everyone wants a place in heaven
but...
they don't want to believe, do, or say anything to get there?

Isn't it strange
how we send jokes in e-mails and they are forwarded right away
but
when we are going to send messages about God, we think about it twice before we share it with others?  

Isn't it strange

I found it thought provoking.

Yesterday I had some free time in the morning so I went to Starbucks. My intention was to spend some time working on my newest blog The Bible and Be. I had my laptop, my new lug purse and my NRSV (New Revised Standard Version of the Bible). As I walked to the door I seriously thought about whether or not I wanted people to see that I was carrying a Bible. Like that would label me in some way I didn't want. I talked myself out of that thinking before I went in. I didn't display it like 'hey look what I'm reading' but I didn't hide it like 'hey I'm embarrassed to let you know I reading this' either. I tried to react to it like it was just any other book. I realize that that is exactly what the Bible is to some people, but we are talking about The Book, the one that the next chapter of my life will be based around. It's hard to have a 'it's just like any other book' relationship with a book like that.

That got me thinking about our relationship with books, my relationship with books. I was one of those kids under the covers with a flashlight reading till the wee hours of 10pm when I was 8. By the time I was in high school I would be up all night, and I got caught reading instead of doing class work on more than one occasion. University deadened my desire for reading for the better part of a decade. Plowing through one book after another while reading 4 additional books for other courses, is a death knell for readers. I readily admit that I have read and loved books I never would have picked up if it weren't for required reading, but they were few and far between. The one that comes to mind is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I probably never would have read that if I didn't have to. But where that was a success, Shakespeare was an epic fail (there, I got it out of my system and I promise not to do it again). I appreciate him as a lover of writing and theatre, but after taking an 8 month survey course in my 3rd year very few of the plays stand out from the pack. The rest are just one big, very odd, play, in which Kenneth Branagh plays almost everyone. I don't think this is a benefit to anyone, with the exception of Kenneth Branagh and perhaps his fan base.

I jumped from an all arts undergrad into something medically science based, Massage Therapy. This filled my brain with things I'm not sure my brain was ever meant to hold. Anatomy, Physiology, Neurology and Pathology. I managed, but there were times I didn't think I would. After I finished my RMT Diploma I had been in post secondary education for 7 years with 18 month break. No books for fun.

The book that won me back? Something I've read probably 10 times at least in part. Jane Eyre. I love this book. LOVE IT. Jane is everything. Charlotte Bronte is amazing. It is interesting to me that I have not read anything else by her for fear that I would love it less and lose some of my passion for her. I have one other but I have never even picked it up to read. Jane Eyre is a book I would talk to anyone about. When I find out that someone hasn't read it I find a copy and give it to them. With the addition of the ebook world and the Gutenberg Project, Jane was the first book I uploaded to my Kobo and iPhone. I know you get it, we all have a book we feel this way about. Some of us feel this way about a childhood book and others love something introduced to them at University or by a friend. That book is what my Dad would call a mission book (or gift) Something you love so much that you share it with everyone who will listen.

So, why is it that I can so openly express my love for Jane Eyre? I have no problem sharing my thoughts and feelings about it with anyone interested. I even give them copies so that they can experience this wonderful book too. The Bible, I hesitate with. I know, at least in part, why I'm not so eager to share. It's because I don't really know the book very well. I read it once as a preteen, mostly so I could say, "Yes, I have read the Bible. Of course I have." and perhaps also because I thought as a Minister's daughter, I should read it, but I didn't really R. E. A. D it. Now, I am reading it. Start to finish, begats and all, cover to cover. I am excited to be doing it too. Very excited. I hope that then I will feel much more capable of sharing my thoughts about it. In fact I am blogging as I read. The Bible and Be is simply a place for me to write as I read, to help me form ideas and opinions (flexible as I want them to be, I still want to have them) about the Bible. However, I'm not sure if I will ever be able to be as comfortable sharing the Bible as I am with Jane Eyre. There is a stigma attached to people who share the Bible this way. They are often perceived as pushy and trying to 'convert'. Called Bible thumpers and freaks. I need to figure out how to share this book that is so fundamental to my life going forward as well as looking back. I want to be able to share it like I do Jane Eyre, because I love it and it's important to me, not because I want to change your opinion on God or shove the Bible down your throat.

I'm going to work on that.

Love Be