Start Where You Are: Growing Together in Bible Handling

Some exquisitely crocheted tea cosies came through the mail this week from a sweet listener.  They really are a thing of beauty. 

My daughter, who has taken up learning to crochet in the last two weeks, looked on in wonder as I unwrapped them.  Her mouth visibly dropped at the creations in my hands, as she audibly wondered how she would ever be able to make something like it. What was my advice to my daughter at that moment? Start where you are.  Don’t expect to start where this lady is - who most likely has been crocheting for decades.  Start where you are, confident that each step along the way is growth in the right direction.

We’ve been pressing record on our conversations in the Bible for over four years now.  And as we often share on the podcast, this is just the tip of the iceberg - both in terms of our work studying the Bible, but also in our experience of reading the Bible with other women- which we’ve been doing for around 20 years now.   We say this, because we’re aware that it may sometimes feel daunting listening to our conversations.  Perhaps you’ve been tempted to think, ‘I could never understand the passage in the way they have’, or ‘I could never have applied it so easily’, or ‘I really don’t think I’ve got what it takes to open the Bible in this way with a friend’.

We both clearly remember the first Bible study we ever led.  And like it was yesterday, we both remember the first time we sat down with another woman to open the Bible one-to-one.  It’s easy to cringe as we think back on those moments, but it’s helpful to recall, in so much as it’s important to remember that we all start somewhere.  Twenty years on, and we’re not where we once were.  Four years of reading the Bible together, and we’ve tangibly grown in how we approach and handle the Bible together (have a listen to some early episodes if you need some evidence!).

God willing, in four years time, and another twenty years of reading the Bible with women, we’ll not be where we are now.  Both in handling the Bible, but crucially in terms of how much more we’ve grown to become like Christ.   Wherever you are on your journey with the Lord, and whatever it looks like for you to learn how to handle the Bible, don’t start where we are.  Start where you are, confident that every moment you give to meditating and delighting on God’s word will, in the Lord’s economy, reap a rich harvest.