Posted: 2/25/08
Bible Studies for Life Series for March 2
Did You Take Your Smart Pill Today?
• 2 Timothy 3.16-17
Willow Meadows Baptist Church, Houston
According to USA Today, Americans are spending more than $1 billion a year on dietary supplements, many of which are aimed at increasing brain power. “You can rub Rogaine into your scalp to try to regain the hairline of your youth. You can inject Botox into your forehead to smooth time's inroads, at least temporarily. And, some scientists predict, you'll eventually be able to pop a pill to freshen up the inside of your head as well.” (USA Today, July 7, 2004).
It seems that many of us want a mental jump start. College kids who aren’t diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are taking Ritalin to cram for finals. Professional public speakers are popping a drug called Provigil (made to treat narcolepsy) so they’ll be alert during presentations.
What’s this all about? Why are we so eager to be smart that we’re willing to pop pills?
There is a hunger in our culture for knowledge because we believe that in this information age that knowledge equals power.
The apostle Paul would agree.
I would suggest that a great deal more practical knowledge could be gained if we took seriously the guidance offered in 2 Timothy. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3.16-17).
The problem for most of us, though, is that we are a generation (or two or three) of the quick fix, the easy solution, the microwave meal. The reality is that, while Christians would agree that all scripture is God-breathed, few of us are willing to do the work of inhaling God’s word into our souls.
Today’s lesson in Bible Studies for Life tells us that the Bible can help us live confidently in a fearful, uncertain world. Agreed. But today’s lesson also says that we have to make a commitment to study the scriptures on a regular basis. Yea, verily, even daily.
Paul urges Timothy to be brave, to take encouragement in suffering, and to have no shame in the gospel. He tells him to persist in proclaiming proudly the message of Christ, and to keep doing the things he had learned from the Scriptures. Paul assumes that Timothy has studied his Scriptures and has learned the life lessons they contain.
That may have been a safe assumption for Timothy, but it’s not likely a safe assumption for Christians today. Our modus operandi is to find the smart pill, but reality is that the process of being spiritually formed humans requires time, love, and tenderness. Like the nurture of a house plant or a farm crop, growth comes slowly – sometimes it’s visible, and sometimes it’s not. But the bottom line is that it calls on us to put our energy into the discipline of daily reading of Scripture at the same time it calls on us to wait on the work of the Holy Spirit to manifest the teachings of Scripture in meaningful ways.
What’s more, there is sometimes pain in the spiritual growth that comes through the discipline of reading the Scriptures. That’s because, when we submit to the authority of the Bible for living our lives, there is a cost associated with living by the Book. Playing by the rules that the Bible proffers necessarily reshapes our ethics in a countercultural way. Playing by the rules of the Word of God redefines our values, our consumer choices, our parenting, our birthing and our dying.
While submitting to the authority of Scripture is sometimes a painful and hard way of living, it is also a victorious way of life. While God doesn’t necessarily bless or curse based on our moral behavior, there is a certain peace in the believer’s life that comes from living by the Book. The Hebrews refer to this as shalom, or peace and wholeness that comes from God. It is based in the truth that the authority of Scripture in our lives does not provide a set of rules to prevent us from having fun, but rather that Scripture offers wisdom and guidance that protects us from the consequences of bad decisions.
A personal story elucidates this best. Once I went snowboarding with a group of friends. Coming out of a restaurant, one of my friends accidentally picked up a snowboard that didn’t belong to him, rather than his own. He didn’t realize his error until the next morning when we were about to hit the slopes again. He called the rental shop stamped on the board, but couldn’t figure out how to get the board back to the rightful owner, nor could he figure out what happened to his board. We all assumed that the other person had his board.
We snowboarded that day; he used the board he’d inadvertently picked up. The next day we returned to the restaurant and, lo and behold, his board was still there. This is when the ethical conundrum became apparent – he had two boards and one didn’t belong to him.
I could tell that my friend deliberated this a lot. After all, he could have returned to Texas with two boards, both worth well over $300. No one would have ever pursued the matter, after all, insurance would cover the lost board. Even the manager of the restaurant and the worker at the resort lost and found “winked’ and encouraged him to keep the board.
My friend was not content with this alternative. The next morning he diligently tracked down the rental shop and we all departed our vacation early so that he could go 40 miles out of his way to return the board. I asked him privately why he didn’t just keep the board.
His answer?
“I guess I’ve just been readin’ my Bible too much lately.”
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