Highlighters

"You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too.

[And he paused in awkward silence]

"But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest."

[Rich Mullins speaking at a chapel service in Wheaton, IL.]

A while back, I was looking through the bible I had in college. I was looking at the things I had written in the margins, the passages I highlighted (my campus ministry was big on highlighters). But mostly I was looking at the questions I asked. And I was struck by something. Most of them were questions I don't ask anymore. Not because I have the answers, but because I have bigger questions.

Many of my questions in college were about "them." Other people. ("What about the person on the island of [Bowa Bowa] who doesn't hear about Jesus?") Or they were about theological issues ("How can people NOT believe that adult baptism is necessary for salvation!!! It's right there in the bible!" AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was in the Church of Christ at the time.)

I "used" the bible a lot...reading it topically on subjects like baptism, predestination, homosexuality, women in ministry...mostly to prove the things I was being taught at the time (Which is strange if you think about it).

Back then, we called it "defending our faith." I'm not sure what I call it now.

I loved highlighters.

Now I'm older. Maybe more cynical, but probably just more awestruck by the Uncaged Lion ("...He is not a tame Lion...but he is good.").

Maybe I like letting The Lion out of the cage more. He never really belonged there in the first place...

And apparently the "cage" didn't hold him anyway. (1 Cor. 15:54)

But what that means is that, more and more, I keep running into This Lion in random places. He is not contained by my little study guides. He sneaks into my life... sometimes he prowls into the places I would least expect Him. My worry, my eating, my understanding poverty, my understanding of my poverty in riches, my relationship with my neighbors, my buying patterns, my relationship with the earth and the environment. Rather than Him being all consumed that I looked at pornography (my big college struggle), He asks me to question why pornography exists in the first place. Why do we live in a world that objectifies people? Why do we think that lust satisfies? What about the young girls (and boys) who are objects of the porn trade?

The questions are bigger, and they are not as easy to answer... there are not enough highlighters. And the answers don't fit into the study guide blanks. Sometimes they seem at odds with them.

It was easier when it was just me, my bible (and study guide!)...

And my highlighter.