Digging Deeper
Today I am sitting in a hotel room, 16 floors above the loud, bustling nighttime streets of Chicago. We decided to take a quick family trip to see this city. Our youngest hasn’t been here before, our oldest hasn’t been here within reach of her memory. We have done some tourist attractions by hitting a museum, Navy Pier and American Girl. However, our favorite times in the city are when we hop the train and venture into a farther reaching neighborhood. We consulted the “L” map and picked a stop to investigate. We hopped off the train and visit a shop, asking the tattooed salesperson where he would go in the neighborhood for a good lunch. He did not steer us wrong. The $3 tacos were amazing, better than the $20 ones around the corner from our hotel on Michigan Ave.
Isn’t this like our relationship with the Bible? Quite often our studies will focus on the surface relationship we share with God and Jesus. We know the stories of Noah in the Old Testament and of Mary and Martha in the New. We remember Cain and Abel, and we recall the empty tomb. All of these are important. But there is much value in digging deeper. In not only developing a relationship with the most famous of biblical characters, but also those defined as smaller or “minor” characters. The life of our faith can be found residing in the hidden crevices of the smallest books. Over the last few months our Grace Group has studied Philippians in depth. Chapter by chapter we have discovered what the book has to say about obedience, sacrifice, rejoicing and trust. We have related these truths to our own lives and our relationships with others.
By digging into a book, short by many standards, we discovered great riches in His word. In the fifth-century, Augustine, observed that the Bible is shallow enough for a lamb to wade in but deep enough for an elephant to drown in. Such sentiments could not be more correct. Finding these depths is a great way to get yourself completely soaked in God’s message. Not just a toe, but your whole body. Great lessons were learned in our study of Philippians, particularly the reminder to “do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation” (Phil 2: 14-15). This important reminder comes to me every day as I go about my daily tasks. This gem would not be found if not for digging deeper into something new.
Lessons abound in the quiet books of God’s Word, laying on the periphery of popularity. Like those $3 tacos, just waiting to be discovered in a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of the big city.
This devotion was written by Melissa Abele, one of Sheridan’s Women’s Ministry Team members, as a way to bring encouragement to the hearts and minds of our sisters in Christ to KNOW, LOVE and SERVE God.