Time Out: Weekly quiet times for the youth worker’s soul.
by Adam Wormann

I think one of the biggest problems we have as Christians is that we know the Bible too well. Well, I guess you really can’t know the Bible too well, but what we do is study it to know it. Not necessarily to know God, but to know what the Bible says. I know that this happens all too often in the tradition I came from. We treat the Bible more as an end than as a means. We miss the point.

Every night before my kids go to bed, I read a passage from the Bible with them and discuss it. (See, I’m really not against reading the Bible). We changed it up a little bit tonight, though. A few minutes before bed, my oldest son (6 years old) went downstairs and did something for my wife that was totally unprompted, caring, thoughtful, and selfless. It was a beautiful thing to see. I told him that we weren’t going to pick up with where we left off last night, that we were going to do something different. We went on to talk about what James says about looking in a mirror.

Read James 1.

Often, our devotions are based almost exclusively around reading, with maybe a little prayer at the end. How much time do we really spend in reflection? Is it that we really need to know more, or that we need to reflect more on what we do and what we need to change? I’ve met very few Christians, especially those involved specifically in ministry, that are clueless about what the Bible says. That’s not our struggle. Our struggle is making it actionable. Our struggle is doing what it says.

Reflect

• What is it in your life that you know from Scripture that needs to be applied?
• Be honest, what are you not doing right now? How are you going to change that?

Posted on April 16, 2012