Turn Left To Go Right - September Pastor Letter

Turn Left to Go Right

            My 16th year of teaching at Adrian College just got underway. Every fall semester, I teach multiple sections of a gen ed course called “Bible and Culture.” It’s an introductory survey of biblical literature that most of all aims to teach students how to read closely and ethically, which are valuable skills no matter what one is reading. The “culture” part intends to highlight that both the Bible and our readings of it are the products of particular cultures at particular historical moments.

As we go through life, our minds form and settle into grooves. To an extent, that’s a really good thing. It enables us to carry out complex tasks without being paralyzed by the innumerable complexities that factor into them or by the almost infinite number of possible outcomes attached to any decision or action. But sometimes it’s a significant and hard-to-overcome barrier to understanding, learning, and growth. 

Early in the course, I show students a short video by Destin Sandlin, an aerospace engineer who hosts a YouTube channel called “Smarter Every Day.” (Here’s the video’s URL if you want to watch it, which I strongly encourage you to do: https://tinyurl.com/turnlefttogoright.) The one thing that stands out most to me in this video is how all of the ways that Destin’s volunteers attempt to ride the “backwards brain bicycle” appear to be based on different ways of thinking but, in reality, they are undergirded by the same fundamental ideas about how a bike is supposed to work. In other words, even though the riders switch hands or adjust their speed, they cannot overcome their ingrained understandings and expectations. As a result, they get nowhere.

Changing the way we think requires humility, openness, exposure, and time. But this is precisely what we’re invited to do as followers of Jesus. One of the biggest obstacles we face when reading the Bible is assuming that we already know what it says and means—both of which are based partly on ingrained conceptualizations of what it is—and then setting out to confirm our thoughts so that we can use the Bible accordingly. I challenge you to regularly entertain all sorts of possibilities regarding what the Bible is, what the Bible means, and how the Bible functions. The Bible—much less God—is never threatened by our questions. Furthermore, asking questions is a way of taking the Bible seriously; it is an act of faith.

Peace.

Scott Elliott