C.S. Lewis writes in his classic book, Mere Christianity many profound and engaging topics about the Christian life. Here is a selection I have found most helpful in looking at how to approach the bible.

“I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the R.A.F., an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, ‘I’ve no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I’m a religious man too. I know there’s a God. I’ve felt Him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that’s just why I don’t believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who’s met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal’

No in a sense I quite agreed with that man. I think he had probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of colored paper. But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only colored paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be of more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.”– C.S. Lewis

Scripture contains many topics and verses that bring us comfort, make us angry, leaves us puzzled, and provokes us to consider the wonder of God. It does not always give the answers we would desire or provide us with the map we would most want.

Walks from the beach sustain us. The view is delightful. However, God asks us to let go of that picturesque the view at times in our life and head for open water. We often think we are heading into the great unknown when we take risks in our faith. How can that be? The unknown is only unknown to us… not God.

God is already there. And He calls us to where He is!

 -Mark