By Jim Nichols

Sometimes I write to myself rather than to you, readers.

I was probably six or seven years old when I received my first, very own Bible. Oak Park Christian Church must have had a Bible giveaway to children of a certain age. I was proud of that Bible; my father had wonderful printing ability, and he inscribed my name and the date in the front of it. I read it frequently as I grew up; it still contains some embarrassing hand-written notes in the margins—some non-sensical, some honest and wondering. Perhaps you have had the same experience with an early personal Bible.

As adults, we sometimes still evaluate our understanding of the Bible. We deliberate why it is so revered historically. We consider what it is and what it is not.

One of the things that most of us have realized is that the Bible is used for different purposes by different people. Some use the Bible as a weapon to wound others; you and I may be guilty of being the attacker or the attacked, depending on the time and circumstances. Many of us have stayed away from the Bible a little or a lot because the Bible seemed too confusing and even dangerous at times. In fact, I believe it actually is occasionally.

We humans like to think of ourselves as logical thinkers, gathering information that we hope is consistent and leads to some reasonable conclusions. If we have tried to take the Bible seriously, we have realized that the basic “logical” approach to the Bible does not work satisfactorily. Something or someone else is going on, and that might require an alternative approach. Logic does not disappear; it is just supplemented. But supplemented by what?

We see apparent contradictions and conflicts within the text. What are we to do with those? There are past and current thinkers who seem to be satisfied with some explanations that smooth out these problems, but, frankly, although I appreciate their efforts, I have never been willing to adopt that approach. There are just too many blatant ideas that seem to be opposites of one another. If we accept that the only things that can be trusted are the facts, we quickly realize that real life does not work on facts alone. The categories just do not hold up under all circumstances. Unfairness still seems to win in the real world. Cruelty dominates occasionally. Miscarriages and the death of young show up.

In our attempts to make biblical sense of reality, we do our best and, frankly, some of the ideas are helpful, though not conclusive.

When I was much younger, I stumbled onto a small book titled The Unfolding Drama of the Bible. The author attempted to describe the Bible as a literary piece like a long story. It began with Genesis, continued through humans learning about themselves and each other, and, finally, a culmination of a divine reunion between God and humans. It was a helpful set of ideas for me but did not solve all my problems.

Echoes of Exodus is another small book that was helpful. There the authors asked readers to look for a recurring theme of redemption and rescue throughout the Bible. Like a symphony movement has a repeating theme that shows up, so the Bible has a restatement of God’s care for his people in a myriad of circumstances. Examples would include the people of Israel being saved from Egypt or the situations where Jesus conquers physical or spiritual barriers in followers.

There are, in fact, many helpful ways to accommodate the Bible; I do not wish to disparage any of them.

I wonder, however, if another approach is out there. What if we consider that Jesus does not start with instructions, but with an identification of our status as children of God. Perhaps the message is first an announcement of who we are; we are created on purpose as beings who are loved by an eternal Creator. We have been blessed as adopted children and have been promised relief from the fear of death.

Many of us have read something in the Bible today that we have read many times in the past, but today it says something different. How does that happen? Did the Bible change or did I change? Was the Holy Spirit operating differently in a different time of my life?

Sometimes I write to myself rather than to you, readers.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain