Spiritual Survival Guide
2: Read This If You’re Confused About Faith
Ten Words That Could Use Some Explaining
change? What do you need to ask God for? These kinds of questions aren’t easy to answer. In fact, they’re often in- credibly difficult. Sometimes they’re the very questions that we’ve been avoiding our whole lives! And yet, it’s as if we can hear God speaking directly to us. And there’s nothing more exciting—or important—in life than this. Read it for its plain sense. Depending on the translation you’re using, most of what the Bible is saying has a plain and straightforward sense. You don’t need an advanced degree to read and understand most of what you’ll be reading. And despite what some folks might tell you, you don’t need some secret code to unlock the “hidden meaning” in the Bible. God communicates with us in ways that ordinary people can understand. Read it through historical eyes. You don’t need to be a Bible scholar or a historian, but try asking yourself, “What would this have meant to the people who first heard it 2000 years ago? What was going through their minds? What impact would it have had on them?” These kinds of questions are obviously harder to answer on your own. That’s where Bible notes or a commentary can come in really handy. You may be years away from reading the Bible this way, or you may already be deep into this kind of thing. Either way, it has its place. Read it with others. All of us have both great insights and some weird ideas. When we read and discuss things with others, we’re able to share all those good insights and maybe correct some of those weird ideas. That’s why Bible study isn’t for “fanatics.” It’s for anybody who wants to understand what they’re reading and build themselves and other people up. It can be hard to arrange reading with others in prison, but when you can, try reading together.
GOD. People use the word God all the time, but they can mean radically different things by it. The Bible has an interesting passage that says, Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:5-6) There’s a sense that “god” is whatever we ultimately depend on. And for lots of us, our main god is ourselves. But beyond all these little gods, there is also the one true and living God. RELIGIOUS. This word has all kinds of negative associations these days. It can make you think of something impersonal, formal, cold, con- trolling, and driven by rules and regulations. The original meaning of “religious,” though, comes from a Latin word that meant to “connect back,” like how a ligament connects muscle to bone. Think about that: in the positive sense, religion is the deep bond that connects us to God and one another. FAITH. Basically, faith means “trust.” That, of course, immediately raises the question “Who (or what) do you trust?” In prison, the basic answer to that question is “Nobody,” at least nobody around you. The question about who’s trustworthy, who’s believable, who’s faithful, is at the core of spiritual survival. In fact, it’s at the heart of what it means to be a human being. SPIRITUAL. This word seems to be everywhere these days. It’s hard to define because people use it in all kinds of different ways. Sometimes it means “mysterious, not easily explained.” Sometimes it means “not
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