Dave and I were talking the other night, sharing stories or the days at Grace, and we got to chatting about a professor that left a lasting impression on both of us. I remember coming from Bob Jones University, so sure of everything; so convinced I was right on all the theological matters. I mean it was the Fortress of Faith, for goodness sake. My boss, Jeff, and I used to discuss and debate and I know he probably just shook his head at me. He’s a pretty thoughtful and highly intelligent guy, and has a wonderful heart. He’s a pastor now in Nebraska. He probably still shakes his head at me when he reads some of this stuff that I write. It’s all good. He was a formative part of my journey.
Anyway, I digress. I was taking New Testament Survey with Dr. Hildebrandt. He was the quintessential absent minded professor type – big rangy guy with not much hair and big glasses. He was gentle and soft spoken most of the time, and liked to tell these rambling stories and anecdotes, but I was always struck by his humility and kindness. And later, when I worked for Grace after graduation, I always enjoyed working with him. This man knew the Bible. Seriously. During these years, he was also teaching Greek and Hebrew and he had developed a system of flash cards that helped people learn to say and understand the various letters and words. He continued this work by creating a computer program that spoke the words to you as you learned them. Eventually he would sell this software to be used by scholars all over the world. During this time, he was also always working on translating some books in the Bible for a new translation that would be coming out. If you ever read the New Living Translation (my personal favorite), Dr. Hildebrandt worked on the book of Proverbs. So one day in class, which was the entire point of my story, he was talking about the Bible being a book that isn’t always clear — there are questions and things that you have to work through and chew on. There are grey areas with answers that aren’t immediate and easy to answer. Well, I tended to run toward absolutes, so this didn’t sit well with me and I said that in class. “I believe the Bible is black and white. I think that greys are more like our perception and that usually we know the answer but we don’t like the answer so we muddle it up and make it grey.” Something along those lines. He was respectful to me, but said, basically, “Joshua, that is a really naive way of looking at scripture. The more you study it, the more you will come to know that there are so many layers.” And he was right. I look back now and am glad that even then, I was being poked and prodded beyond my little theological box.
The reality is that you will find more questions the deeper you dig. When people asked Jesus questions, he would respond with questions. He would tell these stories which even his closest students would scratch their heads over. Jesus was not about giving out pat responses and spoon feeding you. He was all about causing you to dig and question and search. Jesus tells the story of a woman who loses a coin of great value. She turns her whole house upside down looking for this coin – digging though all of her stuff, moving furniture, checking the the cracks of the floorboards until, after searching through the night, she discovers it! She is so excited that she runs to her neighbors and says hey, come over, I’m throwing a party… for what was lost has been found. So it is with us. We search the scriptures, digging and exploring. We turn over phrases, define words, learn to understand historical and cultural context. Like finding a valuable coin, when we get illumination on a concept, it causes us to give (often a very excited) testimony to friends of what we we learned. Because it’s worth getting excited over. The scriptures are said to be living and active. Thousands of years of study by millions of people, and we are still discovering new truths and revelation about these scriptures. So we take what we discover and share it with others –– whether it be words of encouragement, acts of service, joining with causes that cause positive change, investing in other’s lives, learning to experience wonder again. We begin to walk out the truths that we have discovered, and in so doing, it changes us, positions us, and causes us to walk in the dreams and desires of our hearts.
Are there black and white statements in the Bible? Are there also many grey areas or areas that we might think are important to life that aren’t even discussed in the Bible? Yup. There sure are. I guess all I am saying is that I don’t have it all figured out. Who does, really? The older I get, the more I realize the less I know, right? Yet… always learning, always curious, always questioning, always asking for guidance from the Spirit who brings illumination, always, always. I’m grateful for people in my life who have pushed me and for so many teachers and preachers and scholars and thinkers who have caused me to grow; stretch my borders; to expand my mind; and who have caused me to engage my heart along the journey.