Read A Storm of Perfection

The Garden of Scripture

Illusions and Fullness

An enchanted Christian social imaginary will involve revisiting what it means to be human and the nature of the divine–human relationship.^[1]
—Cheryl Bridges Johns

I am a fan of the ocean, particularly the northeast Atlantic, where I spent many summers and lived for six years. Whenever possible, I would spend a whole day at the beach swimming, even though the water temperature averaged sixty degrees. When I got into my late teens and early twenties, I preferred to walk along the beach in the evening and look out at the ocean as if it had an answer I was looking for. I have to admit that I was looking for something. I was looking for purpose and inspiration to figure out who I was and thinking that, at any point, all the answers would pop into my head if I stared out at the horizon long enough. It didn’t happen, and it didn’t happen because I wasn’t looking in the right place.

So, where did I find those answers? It sounds cliché, but I found purpose and inspiration in reading Scripture and discovered who I was when I gave myself to Christ. And something happens; it’s like a path, a process, or a paradox. The more I give up my life to Christ, the more I discover who I am. It’s a continual growth in understanding my identity in Jesus.

Nevertheless, there are some things my time at the beach taught me. I found that crabs prefer to hide under seaweed on the clustered rocks by the water. I discovered that if shattered glass is in the sea long enough, it becomes smooth around the edges and strangely captivating to the eye, so much so that people collect the glass. I also learned that water often magnifies what’s beneath it, giving the illusion that what’s on the bottom is only a few inches or less from the water’s surface. As a child, I would test that illusion frequently in tidepools, thinking them to be only a few inches deep, but I often found that the water would go up to my knee. In school, we learn things under the water; even the surface under the water looks larger and closer because the light is being refracted, not traveling in a straight line anymore, slowing down, which causes magnification. Thus, the illusion comes to life.

In my time as a student, minister, and teacher, I’ve observed that a lot of people, both Christians and non-Christians, sometimes view the Bible the same way as the tidepool. Those who pick up the Bible for the first time, even veterans, might see something beautiful, like one would with the mini eco-systems in a tidepool, and reach their hand in only to find they are in over their head, barely treading water. However, people who oppose Christianity and have already made up their minds about it and what they’ve heard the Bible says only see the illusion of shallowness and don’t even bother to reach in.

Problems With Illusions

I think the illusion partly happens because we don’t always know how much of the Bible we should take literally. But the word “literally” is casually thrown around so often that we must try to discern what the word means in the sense of interpreting the Bible. That is no easy task because it has been bogged down by so much historical baggage from the last hundred and fifty years. Typically, a literal reading of Scripture is supposed to be tied to a type of interpretation called the historical-grammatical method that seeks to discern the meaning of a passage as the author intended it to be understood. Using this method, the setting and circumstances of why the biblical book was written need to be identified, including the historical aspect. The other element, the grammatical, determines what the words and sentences in a passage mean and what genre it is written in so that the passage can be “plainly” communicated.

“You actually believe God made the world in six literal days? You, poor dear. I hope you come out of your cave soon.”

“You don’t believe the number the Bible gives for the Israelites in the wilderness is accurate? I hear hell is hot this time of year.”

The problem is it seems like some Christians gave into the stereotypes. Eventually, those Christians began to interpret the Bible and apply things to their faith that a “literal” interpretation was never meant for us to apply. Suddenly, the Hebrew cosmology of a three-tiered creation seen in Hannah’s prayer, depicting a flat world, must be applied to our time despite a wealth of information that proves otherwise. However, others began dismissing parts of the Bible that a “literal” interpretation was meant for us to apply, such as belief in the resurrection of Jesus and sexual integrity.^[2] And now, a literal interpretation is synonymous with not allowing any other interpretive methods because they’re seen as sinful or worldly by those whose idea of literal interpretation is infused with rigid dogmatism. And those who have a much more nuanced view of a literal view are looked down upon. Then politics had to be injected, and that never helped anything. What’s worse is that the loudest voices in the room are the ones that are on the extreme fringes of each side, each vying for control of the “true” message of the Bible. Interestingly, one part of Christianity always tries to speak for the whole of Christianity.^[3]

I bring all of this up because it has made Bible reading more difficult for many people who already struggle, it makes it harder for those who are called to teach, and it turns people off from even picking up the Bible; it shouldn’t be like this. In the secular world, humanity has found many ways to maim and kill one another, but in Christianity, depending on who we listen to, it can seem like we are acquiring a lot of methods to maim and kill our faith.

Our obsession with time, not having enough, and not having good quality is, of course, symptomatic of our era. So many books and people tell us to slow down, reprioritize, simplify, and be mindful. Yet, we might not have enough time to read or listen to those voices. However, let’s say we do listen, and we then decide to read for fifteen minutes, but then we are overcome with the thought of that not being enough time. We wonder, is that even enough time to gain a worthwhile understanding of God? Can I get to know God more in just fifteen minutes? My answer is yes. God can do more in fifteen minutes than we can imagine, even if we don’t realize it until later. But we have to be okay with that small amount of time.

The reason I believe we need to be okay with only being able to give God a small amount of our time has to do with motive. When we reach our hand into the tidepool, our motive is to grab what’s at the bottom because we are eager to get an up-close look at whatever the object is, be it a starfish or a periwinkle shell; we’re curious. We will only learn so much through mere curiosity; we learn much more through faithful, consistent, and committed curiosity. The award for that accrues over time, and suddenly, we find we know that object at the bottom of the tidepool intimately. The dedication to reading the Bible consistently, even if it’s only for a short amount of time, is like that, but only sort of. It is only “sort of” like that because even though God is the object of our faith and study, and we are getting to know him more intimately, God is not an object like a periwinkle shell or a sand dollar. Instead, he reveals that we are one of his most prized objects and demonstrates how intimately he already knows us. So, over time, our motive must shift from genuine curiosity to one that accepts and tries to understand how God uses the Bible to form his people into an object, a living vessel that reflects his glory.

The issue of time can be healed when the above motive shifts along with the petition to God for more time. God is perfectly able to move us out of what restricts us from him, whatever our excuses, especially in the hyper-distracted West. Our job is to relent, sacrifice, and use that time wisely. Part of using time wisely is coming to terms with the fact that we will not instantaneously learn everything we need to know about the Bible and what God is saying to us in one reading. When we heed that wisdom, we become like the trusty characters in Jesus’ parable of the talents. In the parable, Jesus tells his disciples that a person who owns a lot of property needs to head out of town, so he asks three of his workers to manage the property, giving one worker five talents (an amount of money equal to 75 years’ wages), the second worker two talents, and the third worker one talent. While the property manager was away, the two with the most money invested what they had in unnamed things and doubled the amount given to them. When the property owner returns and the first two workers tell him the good news, he rewards them with more responsibility, which is joyfully received. However, the worker with only one talent buried the money in the field and attacked the property owner’s character upon his return (Matt 28:14–28). The parable ends with that worker being fired and evicted from the property. Jesus’ lesson is that those who receive from God and put it into action will receive more from him. When we ask God for more time to get closer to him, he’ll give it to us.

John and Rachel

Indeed, it will take time to read the Bible, as it should. Relationships take time, and finite humans encounter the infinite God in Scripture. We will not master the Bible over our lifetime either, even if we better understand it toward the end of our lives. That means it will not always be simple. We should probably be wary when people say the Bible has a “simple teaching” about God. A “simple teaching” is like looking at a flower and saying, “This is a flower.” Though it is true that the Gospel, the message of Christ, is simple enough for a child to understand, it by no means stays simple but grows more profound the more we mature as readers. So, while some are intent on staying at a simple teaching, the Bible continues to the depths God meant it for. It can be kind of like John and Rachel’s story here:

John was strolling through his neighborhood on a splendid midsummer evening. As he climbed a small hill, he saw a bush dotted with vibrant red shapes. The closer John came to it, the more he realized it was a rose bush. John then noticed that the owner of the home where the rose bush was, an older woman who appeared to be in her mid-fifties, was watering the lawn. John picked up his stride to reach her before she finished and went inside.

“Excuse me,” John said, panting.

“Hello,” she returned warmly. “You’re John, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” he returned as he caught his breath. “I apologize; I don’t believe I’ve ever asked you your name.”

The woman chucked and batted a hand at him. “Don’t worry, I’m afraid I’m somewhat of a busybody, but my name is Beverly. Oh, but I prefer Bev.”

“Excellent,” John replied. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Listen, I stopped by because I was wondering if I could get a closer look at the rose bush? It’s magnificent!”

“Of course,” she said, smiling warmly again at him while waving him over.

The roses were even better up closer. Examining the lushness and vitality of the rose petals, John was mesmerized. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such a healthy rose bush before,” he exclaimed.

“Ah, yes,” Bev replied kindly. “I bought them at a nursery on the other side of town at the recommendation of a friend. It’s called Vera’s.”

Still entranced by the roses, John replied, “I wouldn’t mind having these in my yard as well.”

“I can give you the address if you’d like? The owner is wonderful! She’s younger than I thought she’d be but packed full of knowledge,” said Bev.

Bev’s question put John on the spot, and he had to think it over briefly. John wondered if he said he wanted a rose bush like the one in front of him because he really desired it or said it because he was being friendly. He at least decided to take the address.

“Yes, thank you,” he replied as he got out his phone to type in the address.

When she finished, John politely said goodbye and continued his evening walk.

Later in the evening, as John was shaving after a shower, he found his mind becoming fixated on the rose bush again. He’d been telling the truth when he said they were magnificent. Perhaps it would be nice to step out into his yard and see something like that daily; maintaining them would be worth the effort. John then determined that he’d visit the nursery the next day, talk to the owner, and decide.

The following morning, John ate his breakfast, got dressed, and made good on the decision the night before to visit Vera’s. He pulled up the address on his phone’s navigation app and found it was only fifteen minutes from his home. Finally arriving, John discovered a modest-sized shop with an attached greenhouse a shade larger. He entered, and what he found surprised him. So many healthy flowers, both common and uncommon, were all arranged in humble but enchanting displays. Colors popped out at him from every direction, and plants in the greenhouse resembled a picturesque tropical island; there was even a place in the back of the property filled with young trees and various shrubs. It reminded John of the imagery in C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra, which he read back in college. No wonder the rose bush appeared so wonderful, coming from a place like this!

John then tried to track down the owner. The nursery was a bit busy with it being a weekend, but it wasn’t crowded. He asked one employee at the cash register, a young college-aged boy if he knew where the owner was. The boy was unsure and told him to ask the assistant manager who was in the greenhouse. Stepping down in the greenhouse, he spotted a young woman in a forest green polo with a badge bearing the name “Kristen.”

“Excuse me,” he said, walking up to her. “The cashier told me you might know where I could find the owner.”

The young Kristen looked up at him politely but uneasily. “Yes, she’s out in the back,” she replied. “I can take you to her.”

“Thank you,” John replied as friendly as he could.

As the two walked back into the shop, where the doors leading to the back part of the property were, John tried to strike up some small talk.

“So, how long have you been working here?” John asked.

“Oh, about two years,” she replied casually.

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah, I do. My aunt is the owner. Yay, nepotism!” She said jokingly.

They passed through the double doors into a sizable open-air but fenced-in area. Kristen spied around quickly and spotted her aunt, who had her back to them and was inspecting a few pots containing stargazer lilies. She then continued to escort John toward the woman.

“Aunt Rachel?” Kristen called out.

The woman turned around, revealing her somewhat bookish appearance, but had sun-kissed skin, deep brown hair, and a welcoming smile. To John’s embarrassment, he found himself quite taken with her looks.

“Aunt Rachel,” Kristen said again as they approached her. “I think this man had a few questions for you.”

“How can I help you,” she asked with a soft yet assertive voice, removing her glasses.

She had large and captivating blue eyes. John tried not to stare. “Hi, thank you. This place was recommended by my neighbor, Bev.”

“Oh, I love Bev!” Rachel replied. “She is a dream customer and so pleasant.”

“Well,” John continued, “I saw the rose bush in her yard, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. To be honest, I don’t think about flowers that much. I’m not exactly one for gardening, but the rose bush was brilliant, and she told me she got the bulbs from here. So, I thought I’d come by and check this place out and ask why those roses looked so good.”

Rachel blushed somewhat at his comments. “Well, a lot of that has to do with the gardener, but our website offers a lot of information on how to tend a garden.”

“I see. Did you go to school for all of this?” He asked awkwardly.

“Not exactly,” Rachel replied. “I spent my summers with my grandmother, the “Vera” in Vera’s Nursey, and she’s the one who taught me all I know. Although, to be fair, she was a botanist turned horticulturalist.”

“Does she work here as well,” John asked.

Rachel’s face became a bit downcast at the question, which made John feel a little stupid.

“No,” she said. “Unfortunately, she passed away a few years after I got out of college,” she trailed off. “But this shop is dedicated to her legacy.”

After a few more minutes of conversation, John decided to buy a bulb of a rose bush and try his hand at growing it. When he arrived home, he looked up the store’s website and followed its instructions on properly planting and maintaining it to ensure growth. Over the next two weeks, he watched it as it grew, noticing several healthy buds. John also thought of Rachel and how there was more of a story behind her relationship with her grandmother based on her solemn response to his question.

A few more days went by, and over that time, he prepared a place in his backyard to plant more flowers, following the website’s instructions. While genuinely wanting to grow more things, he also wanted to see Rachel again. When the garden bed was finished, he returned to Vera’s Nursery. John was able to track her down and thanked her for the success he experienced. He then asked if she had any advice on what else he could plant as a beginner, to which she suggested Daylilies. John did something else, though, something as risky as planting roses with no experience; he asked her out for coffee. Although she eyed him carefully when he asked, Rachel agreed.

To John’s amazement, they met several more times after their coffee date. During one meeting in particular, Rachel decided to share more about the relationship between her and her Grandmother, Vera. The relationship the two shared wasn’t just based on gardening but on the bond of love. Rachel’s grandmother passed on her wisdom as well as her skills. When she wasn’t with her grandmother in the summer, they’d talk on the phone several times a week. Rachel even shared how she’d gotten pregnant in college, thinking her grandmother was going to kill her, and admitted her parents were furious. Vera was upset with her, naturally, but continued to offer the love she always had. Then, through tears, Rachel recounted the care her grandmother gave her when she went through the devastation of miscarrying the pregnancy.

That admittance by Rachel marked a turning point in John’s relationship with her; it was a brave step to take in sharing with him. John knew then that he wanted to marry Rachel, and after a few more months, he popped the question, to which she answered with an excited “Yes!”

Soon after their marriage, the imagery of Perelandra became a reality. Rachel transformed his yard into a paradise. No, it was their yard now, their paradise.

In this story, John avoided the error of thinking he had all of the information he needed about the roses just by looking at them. Had he not taken the time to go on the journey of finding the owner of the nursery, he would have missed out on a world of meaning, on a grand story that spans generations, and John would have missed out on the person he’d spend the rest of his life with. John was faithful to his journey even though it led him away from himself and to another. However, he also finds a more complete version of himself when he develops a relationship with Rachel. Although it is not a perfect example, the story illustrates that a faithful reading—which keeps context in mind—of the Bible leads us away from ourselves and to the God who revealed himself in it. Yet, the more we are led away from ourselves and to God, the more we find a complete version of ourselves as we find that God has authored us. Like John and Rachel’s story and the way flowers unfold as they bloom, the story of Scripture unfolds as we take the steps that lead beyond the surface of a “simple teaching.” We must be humble then and not rush to conclusions, nor should we be intent on thinking we will understand everything correctly when the Bible is meant to consume a lifetime of study.

Prismatic Fullness

The unfolding of meaning in the Bible reflects another thing about God. In chapter 3 of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says, “Through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph 3:10). The word Paul uses for “rich variety,” which can also be translated as “manifold,” is the Greek word polypoikilos. The word can mean many-sided or many-colored. We can think of God’s wisdom then as a jewel with many facets. When light passes through this jewel, the eye is treated to seeing the color spectrum when it’s cast onto a surface. The difference, though, is that God emits his own light. So, in this sense, he is both the jewel and the light. What God gives us in Scripture is layered; it is multifaceted because he is multifaceted, but everything he gives us leads to himself. That is why we must be careful of people who teach their method of reading Scripture as the only valid method and disregard what others can contribute. Not only does it smack of fundamentalism, which is more of an attitude than a denomination, but it isn’t humble either. God is more significant than even the most faithful reading we can devise.

Understanding God’s fullness might look like what theologian and pastor Tony Richie discusses in his book Essentials of Pentecostal Theology [Editor’s note: read the review by John Lathrop]. In it, he attempts to trace out the “theology of fullness” to support the Pentecostal practice of Spirit-baptism. While defending such a doctrine is not the focus of this section (even though I’m a Pentecostal Christian), Richie guides readers of the Bible by pointing out how the language of “filling” is a prominent and favored figure of speech throughout Scripture, especially relating to divine truth and spiritual experience.^[4] To do this, he teases it out in a few ways. First, Richie points out how God fills creation, citing several verses such as Numbers 14:21, where God says, “Nevertheless—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.”^[5] The author then points out that God even fills the homes of his people and their mouths with praise (Neh 9:25, Ps 71:8).

The nature of filling continues all the way through the New Testament in the disciples and onlookers reactions to Christ’s miracles and provision (Luke 5:26, John 2:7). Then, filling takes on another dimension in the book of Acts as the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit who empowers them to preach the Gospel boldly and perform signs and wonders (Acts 2:1–4, 3:1–8, 5:12–16, 8:4–13, 9:40–41, etc.). Many whom the Apostles encountered, however, also experienced a filling/baptism of the Spirit, such as when Peter and John ministered to the same Samaritans as Philip (8:14–17) and when Cornelius came into the faith through Peter’s preaching (10:44–46).^[6] Richie gives several other examples, but his work recalls the words of King David when he says, “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there” (Ps 139:7–8).

On the other hand, we must also acknowledge that we can be filled in different ways that don’t reflect God. To see this, we only need to look back to Genesis 1. At the end of the chapter, God gives Adam and Eve the divine mandate to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28). Instead, they fill the earth with violence because they disobeyed God’s command of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.^[7] This indicates that it turns into negative behavior when humanity tries to supplement God’s fullness for their own. For example, when coming across Jesus, religious leaders were “filled with wrath (Luke 4:28).” The infilling of rage would continue as they schemed and devised (the harmful use of imagination) how to arrest and execute Jesus, which eventually culminated with his execution.

As the gospels tell us, however, Jesus is resurrected, thereby defeating sin, the power of death, and Satan. He then bestows his promise of the Spirit’s coming (Acts 1:8), fulfilled in Acts 2. While we see miraculous signs performed by the Apostles through the power of the Spirit throughout the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is given to all believers. He inhabits our lives (Eph 1:13) and pours out God’s love into our hearts (Rom 5:5); He is “God with us.” The primary activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to sanctify and form our characters to resemble Christ, along with empowering our witness of Jesus. We are pressed by the Apostles to keep in step with the Spirit’s guidance (Gal 5:25), and in this way, we can be victorious over the works of the flesh that seek to fill us with the desires of a fallen world.

Nevertheless, we still see through a mirror darkly, as Paul says (1 Cor 13:12). We only know in part, so we don’t always understand we are surrounded by the fullness of God. This is because even though Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God at his resurrection, his return will fully realize the Kingdom of God. As the Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:3). That is why, as readers of the Bible, we need to be dependent on the leading and filling of the Spirit of God. It’s in this filling and dependence that we experience the fullness of God in this life and in Scripture, in its rich variety, so that we can prepare for the face-to-face fullness of God in the eternal life to come.

As we grasp this fullness of God, which is experienced both temporally and spiritually over our whole life, the illusion begins to fade, and the truth becomes clear because we are consistently learning. The sea we had mistaken for a tidepool and had become over our heads then suddenly turns into the water of life whose depths we humbly explore.

PR

This chapter is an excerpt from Tim Tschida’s book, The Garden of Scripture: Growing Your Confidence in the Bible (Resource Publications, 2025). Used with permission.

Notes

[1] Johns, Re-Enchanting The Text, 43.

[2] The disbelief in the resurrection has existed since at least Enlightenment in some capacity but has become more widespread among those who promote Jesus only for his moral and ethical teachings.

[3] Lewis, God In The Dock, 217. In an essay featured in the book, Lewis confronts the idea of a Christian political party in England noting it wouldn’t be successful because as soon as it makes certain accommodations or takes money from non–Christian financiers, it would cease being Christian. It also wouldn’t be able to speak for the whole of Christianity simply because English Christianity is only part of the body of Christ, not the whole thing. The same can be said for Christian denominations who try to control the definition of a “true” interpretation of the Bible.

[4] Tony Richie, Essentials of Pentecostal Theology, 133.

[5] Tony Richie, Essentials of Pentecostal Theology, 133.

[6] Tony Richie, Essentials of Pentecostal Theology, 133.

[7] Tony Richie, Essentials of Pentecostal Theology, 133.

The Garden of Scripture

A Storm of Perfection

Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.
—Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Growing up in Minnesota, experiencing thunderstorms was common. I can genuinely say that I enjoyed most of them for one reason or another. Sometimes, when I tell that to others, they give me a strange look, but I never let it bother me. As a child, I particularly enjoyed the storms I could see far in the distance. One of the cool things about living on the northern plains is that the land is level enough so that a person can see storms that are miles away. For whatever reason, my parents told me the lightning we could see from those storms in the distance was called “heat lightning,” which never entirely made sense to me but added to their mystique. Those storms always seemed to strike at dusk and in the deepest part of summer. There was just enough light left in the sky that when lightning illuminated the cloud, it took on a curious orangish-white marbled quality that clashed with the deeper blue parts of the thunderhead. Gazing upon those storms in the distance was like looking into a different world; it was great for inspiring the imagination.

The thunderstorms I usually preferred, however, were the ones that directly impacted us, especially the ones that hit at night. They were never dull. In these storms, one of the main things I enjoyed was how one bolt could light up the surrounding darkness. For the briefest instant, when the lightning struck, I could see every detail of my neighborhood almost as clearly as in the day.

Those childhood memories got put on the back burner. As I moved across the country to the East Coast, thunderstorms were less frequent, and my attention turned to creating and facing my own inner storms. Eventually, I would give my life over to Christ, get married, move to the Southeastern United States, get called into ministry, and go to college and seminary to study theology. With my arrival in the South came the return of natural thunderstorms, ones that, if I can be honest, are terrifying because cloud–to–ground lightning is more common. And trees are everywhere, frequently knocked down by heavy rain and bursts of wind. But they did bring back the memories of watching the lightning illuminate everything.

Then God did something that would make storms relevant in a way I never imagined; he showed me Psalm 119:105. The verse says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” When I say that God showed it to me, I’m not saying I wasn’t aware of the verse; it was a popular worship song when I was a kid and was commonly used as a memory verse in Sunday school. What I mean is that God illuminated it when I studied it in Hebrew. The word for light in Hebrew, Or, can mean lightning. Finding that out immediately brought me back to my childhood memory of seeing my surroundings lit up. It revealed to me that the light God provides through his word doesn’t just allow us to see a few steps before us but can illuminate our path almost entirely.

As good as that is, lightning is only temporary. Its clarity lasts for a second, and everything goes dark again. When it comes to the direction our lives should go, the major decisions we make, or even the everyday situations we face, we can make the case that we need this type of illumination from God, however brief it is. If we return to Psalm 119:105, God has much more light to give us. Or does not just mean the brightness that a flash of lightning offers. The word also denotes the light at daybreak, the full light of the sun, and the light of glory, and is even linked to the pillar of fire that Israelites followed coming out of Egypt.

The imagery of lightning and fire almost seems counterintuitive because they are destructive forces, but God is Lord over them and can use those powerful elements. Yahweh himself appeared to the Israelites as a terrifying dark cloud containing lightning and fire. In his ominous interaction with Israel, however, God gave them his Instruction, the Torah, that showed Israel how to love and honor him and each other’s lives (Exod 19:16–19), and that’s why Or also means the light of life. The overall lesson from Psalm 119:105 is that the light God provides through Scripture is supposed to be stable and consistently shining, leading to a life of love, joy, and eagerness.^[1]

Little things like the Hebrew word for light demonstrate how God’s word is perfect. In Evangelical Christianity, we have a strange relationship with that sentiment. By expressing that the Bible is perfect, we usually mean that it is without error and sum it up with a doctrine called Biblical Inerrancy. But that is such a limited view of perfection for Scripture. The Old and New Testaments are perfect not because they don’t make errors but because they are the perfect collection of books that speak to humanity’s need for salvation. Then it is perfect for speaking to every situation we face because it speaks to the root issues of what causes those situations, doesn’t offer a solution found in ourselves, and mainly because it reveals Christ. The little word Or implies that our light and lives are sourced and sustained by a perfect God.

Meditative Reading

Our perfect God is willing to give us as much light on his Word as we are eager to ask for, and we should ask. Sometimes, though, I think God nudges us in unexpected ways. He gives us seemingly perfect moments to reflect on. These perfect moments are typically not easy to define until an individual experiences them, and they are subjective. Perhaps your moment is hearing the first cry of your just-born child or the moment your spouse said “I do” at the altar, or maybe when you realized what you wanted to do for the rest of your life. Whatever those moments are, whenever they do happen, they are engrained in your memory forever.

In an important way, I believe the practice of meditating on Scripture can be described as a haunting of God’s Word that won’t let you go until you spend time with it. Or, at least, maybe that’s how we should treat it. When I was a child in the 1980s and ’90s, the word meditation certainly would have had a similar connotation with haunting because of its affiliation with Eastern spirituality and New Age practices. However, I have seen the Christian form of meditation become more widely accepted in churches that honor it as a practice within the historical church. But with us having built a society where instant gratification can be met on demand, I wonder if meditation is lacking in the lives of many believers. With so many ways to distract ourselves to prevent us from reflecting, is it any wonder that biblical literacy has significantly declined?

Whenever it’s done well, however, meditating on Scripture leads to powerful insights that we read about in some of our favorite classic Christian books, such as The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer. In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster describes the practice of meditation as the “ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word” out of a desire to fellowship with God.^[2] Foster pulls from the Bible to note the importance of meditating on Scripture by highlighting the word’s use in Psalm 119, where David declares, “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long” (119:97) along with other Old Testament appearances.^[3] In meditating on God’s word, David found his wisdom had increased significantly and that he could sense his Lord’s sweetness, which we don’t often take the time to comprehend (119:103). This mirrors the church father Jerome’s account of his friend Marcella saying, “whatever in us was gathered by long study and by lengthy meditation was almost changed into nature; this she tasted, this she learned, this she possessed.”^[4] As a result, when Jerome left his station, Marcella was sought as an authority when issues of Scriptural interpretation arose.^[5] So, in a biblical context, meditation doesn’t require us to empty our minds or detach ourselves from reality, but it invites us to fill our minds with God’s truth to attach ourselves more deeply to him.^[6]

Something palpable happens to us after we begin meditating on God’s Word; Scripture starts to haunt us. Theologian and educator Cheryl Bridges Johns laments that in this modern age, Scripture doesn’t keep people up at night, nor does it seem to fill their days with “images and stories.”^[7] To cope with that, Johns notices that modern society, Christian or secular, has found alternatives to enchant themselves through popular media or activities driven by lust and has become disenchanted with Scripture. And so, instead, we let a plethora of other harmful things haunt us. With my whole breath, however, I would argue that what the Bible offers us, especially in the revelation of Christ, is beautiful beyond comprehension. We should let such beauty haunt us instead of pain and regret, and it is a shame when we consider the latter more real and tangible than the inhabiting of the Spirit and Word within us. I believe, however, that intentional (which is just a buzzword that means to do something on purpose) meditation is one way to alleviate the issues Johns raises.

But what do I mean by that? Out of contemplation will hopefully come the understanding that Scripture is multifaceted. Each line of Scripture tends to link to other portions of Scripture, forming a connective tissue we banally call themes. If we begin to comprehend specific themes, things like the nature of God’s love, faith, the beauty and glory of God’s Kingdom, other biblical riches begin to accurately take shape in our hearts and minds. Although the Apostle Paul promises us we’ll see through a mirror darkly until Christ’s return (1 Cor 13:12), the picture God is communicating to readers of Scripture can become more apparent in meditation.

When the Bible’s messages become visible, it’s easier to become swept up in its narrative. That is a good thing and arguably what God wants. A common belief among Christians in the West is that we must interpret God’s word objectively so that we don’t insert our own experience into the text; that would be something called eisegesis. However, the unintentional effect of objectivism is that faith becomes an intellectual ascent rather than one that permeates a person’s whole self. That is a problem since God is after a person’s entire being. Consider Moses’ command to the Israelites, saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6:5), a command that Jesus echoes in Matthew 22. A question we can ask is, if we believe the God revealed in the Bible is powerful enough to create the universe, is he powerful enough to transform us through reading his word?

Several significant figures throughout the Bible suggest the answer to the question we just asked is yes. One prominent person is the Old Testament leader Joshua. Guess how Joshua says transformation through the Word should happen? He says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night,” and in doing so, it will allow us to act in accordance with what it says (Josh 1:8). We must also remember the context of Joshua to understand the significance of how meditating on Scripture can impact the whole person. Joshua had inherited from Moses the role of leading Israel into the promised land of Canaan. He led the Israelites in battle after battle against kingdoms who thought it was perfectly fine to sacrifice children to their gods to receive a fertile growing season. We know this because Moses gives commands to the Israelites, saying:

When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD; it is because of such abhorrent practices that the LORD your God is driving them out before you. (Deuteronomy 18:9–12)

The kind of thinking and practice of those pagan nations is symbolic of a fallen world. To change such a way of living, the Israelites weren’t just required to “know the rules” but to embody the word of God, which would lead to their prosperity and even the prosperity of their neighbors. It’s not so different for Christians in this day and age. Despite Christ inaugurating his Kingdom, we still live in a fallen world and have societies steeped in destructive sin. If meditation could significantly aid the ancient Israelites, we who serve the same God can also benefit.

Although meditation has a profoundly spiritual connotation, many can be turned off by the word or become intimidated. There was and is a long tradition of meditation within the church, often called Contemplative Christianity, a term that can sometimes be code for Christian Mysticism. Like meditation, mysticism can be a polarizing word in some parts of the church because there are other forms of mysticism in different cultures and religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Historically, the church has been enriched by Christian mystics such as Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, The Desert Fathers (St. Anthony) and Mothers, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, and many others. Most of the men and women listed lived a monastic life. They dedicated themselves to Christian meditation and other Christian disciplines because it allowed them to be fully devoted to God. Their writings have catapulted them into legendary status with lasting influence.

Yet, if Tim, a close friend of mine who owns a landscaping business, does it while mowing a yard, surely we don’t all have to be monks and nuns at a monastery. For Tim, meditation is about asking the Holy Spirit questions about Scripture; a fantastic one that he returns to often is the question of what happened on the cross. One could argue that Tim’s question is answered directly in the pages of the four gospels. That is true, but meditation is less about seeing what’s on the pages and more about dwelling on what the pages reveal, so it’s what happens after we see it. That is because the “central goal of Christian mysticism is to experience the ineffable splendors of the mutual indwelling of the soul in Christ,” as implied by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:20.^[8] The Spirit who inspired the living word invites us to seek with our own spirits the depth of God’s communion with us.

Also, consider this: the Hebrew word for meditate, hagita, means “to mutter” or to “say under the breath,” which brings a kind of lightness to the practice. There is a reason for muttering. Since most Israelites learned God’s word orally, it only makes sense that lingering on it would also be verbal itself. So, those who meditated on the Law would walk around or perform their duties while muttering Scripture under their breath in the process of understanding. Lots of us mutter under our breath, and usually, it’s by saying something passive-aggressive. Imagine, though, if we instead directed our thoughts and words towards understanding a verse or a passage we long to comprehend. I believe it would bring significant change to our lives and compel us to do it more and more as we seek to commune with God and obey him.
How To Meditate On Scripture As A Christian

So, how does a Christian meditate on their Bible readings? In this section, I’m supposed to offer several tips on how to improve your contemplative life. The fact is that it is difficult to flesh out concretely. The Bible, of course, is primary. Having the verse or passage fresh in our minds helps the process significantly as we seek to ask and dwell on its meaning. Richard Foster, who I mentioned earlier, writes about developing an interior life aided by time, place, and posture.^[10] Time is crucial because we have the physical and the emotional competing with the spiritual. The place is significant because it might be impossible to get a moment’s peace depending on our environment. Posture also impacts us because we can’t think or reflect well if we’re uncomfortable.

I agree with Foster. I often meditate on Scripture when I’m alone and have ambient music playing while sitting at my desk with the blinds open so I can see my yard. That being said, I’ve also meditated when doing the dishes, cutting the grass, or vacuuming. Anything that relies on muscle memory, or a “mindless activity,” frees our minds to focus on what we’ve read and be receptive to the Spirit of God. Notice here, too, in all these instances, as well as what Foster suggests, that I am wide awake. I like to think of meditating as studying in that it’s a process of learning, and I’m giving it the kind of attention needed to study well. It’s probably not impossible to meditate on Scripture lying in bed, but it’s less fruitful because of the temptation to doze off. Additionally, in times of meditation, you may want to write down the verse or passage so that you can come back later and add anything that God has shown you or if any of your other readings have contributed to your understanding.
Getting Results?

So far, I have described meditation as seeking answers and communing with God. We do this expecting that God will speak to us in return. But when can we expect an answer or see results? Whenever. I mentioned above that I, and others, have meditated during purposeful times or when doing mindless tasks. God also spoke to me in those times by impressing a thought that directly addressed what I was searching for in meditation. However, God has also spoken to me while I was in the middle of teaching my students. As I was writing The Fruit That Turns The World Upside Down, I’d been doing a lot of meditative reading. While teaching my high school students about the flood in Genesis, a thought literally popped into my head about how the flood metaphorically applies to our lives before we meet Christ and how Christ’s peace changes the effect of water to sanctify us.^[11] I believe I said, “holy smokes,” out loud while writing on the marker board. All that to say, I wasn’t expecting such a thought at that time.

If our meditation is truly about God, I believe he also gives us a way to confirm it. Countless times after meditation, questions have formed in my mind about God and what he says in his Word, and numerous times, that question was answered via a pastor’s sermon or perhaps something another Christian said, and usually in the same week. It is vital to confirm what we’re getting from meditation so we don’t slip into false beliefs and share erroneous things outside the bounds of Scripture. We need to heed John’s words to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Nevertheless, if we’re receptive to God, he will bless us in his timing, which, by our standards, may happen whenever.

We love mysteries, but more than that, we love solving puzzles. One of my favorite mystery-solving television series was Luther, starring Idris Elba, because it’s not Sherlock Holmes but is still set in London. As a detective, Luther faces off against some very dangerous and brilliant foes, especially Alice Morgan, but he always manages to crack the case. Part of what I love about mystery shows is misdirection. When the viewer thinks they’ve figured out who’s done it, the detective reveals who actually did the crime, and there is closure. Some people take the same approach when meditating on Scripture as if the rest of the church is getting specific passages wrong, but their meditation reveals what the Bible is really saying. We are not Gnostics who try to “unlock” secret truths in the Bible or who eschew our physical lives for a solely spiritual life. While Christian meditation involves a person’s mind and spirit, the practice rests in the God present in both Testaments. Through meditation, we embrace the tension of mystery, understanding that God may reveal some parts but not all.

It is like The Big Bang Theory episode called “The Closure Alternative.” In the episode, one of the main characters, Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), is upset about his favorite show being canceled on a cliffhanger. Sensing his obsession with closure in many other parts of his life and thinking he needs to re-condition his mind, Sheldon’s girlfriend, Amy (Mayim Bialik), arranges a series of activities for him to complete but prevents him from completing each task just before he can finish. By the end of the night, Sheldon claims that her experiment worked and confesses, albeit somewhat falsely, that he doesn’t need the closure he sought.^[12]

Mystery is beneficial for our minds. Why shouldn’t we want to let our minds hold God and his love in awe and wonder? Because those two states of being lead to feeling overwhelmed, people often avoid such a crucial time of reflection. As the Norwegian Educator Paul Martin Opdal observes, awe and “Wonder…always points to something beyond the accepted rules.”^[13] That can be daunting, especially in the context of religion, where there are “rules” to prevent us from sliding into unorthodox beliefs. Yet, multiple times in Scripture, we are told that being in awe and wonder of God is more than acceptable. Opdal notes that wonder gives us “an inkling that there is more to it that tradition admits, and that this ‘more’ can be investigated.”^[14] The “more” can be described as the theology beyond denominational doctrine that can sometimes be too reductive in how it discusses God and what he does.

Therefore, meditation can and does serve as a direct link to awe and wonder. In fact, we could say that meditation allows us to dive into the depths, swim in the mysteries Scripture presents, and enjoy that God is wholly other than us and who makes us whole.
What Meditation On Scripture Isn’t

The spiritual practice of Christian meditation is not a trend either. Trends depend on the consensus of popularity and are driven by influencers. For example, at the time of this writing, it is 2023, and a famous haircut from the early 1990s, the mullet, is gaining popularity because of some musicians and professional athletes. God willing, the trend will die out again, too. Although Christian spiritual practices have ebbed and flowed within the church for the last two thousand years, and some believers have promoted spirituality for their own benefit, practices such as meditation are a core component of the faith. As I have already demonstrated, meditation has been part of biblical faith since its inception, with its first appearance in Genesis 24:63. For Christians, intentional practice within the church was emphasized in the patristic period, if not before. Christopher Hall writes:

The [church] fathers never split theology off from spirituality, as though theology was an academic, mental exercise best practiced in one’s study, while Christian spirituality was more appropriately focused on the heart and centered in a church sanctuary. Any split between mind and heart, theology and spirituality, study and sanctuary would have been met with scant toleration from the fathers.^[15]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer utilized meditation as well. A commonly shared quote from him states, “Why do I meditate? Because I am a Christian.”^[16] That is because Bonhoeffer believed it to be an excellent way to tame the flesh, the fallen nature that tries daily to creep up in believers and distracts us from forming good Christian discipleship.^[17] He knew that our spirits are all too willing to follow the path of discipleship, but the flesh is “fearful,” causing us to create distractions and excuses as to why we can’t grow in our love toward God and our neighbor.^[18] Carving out time for meditating on Scripture is a practical discipline for our faith as we humbly submit ourselves to “move forward with certainty upon the firm ground of the word of God.”^[19]

Lastly, meditation is not for our self-elevation and self-promotion. Social media can sometimes be a great place for Christians. Through it, I’ve gained a lot of relationships with people that wouldn’t be possible without the platforms. On the other hand, social media is also rife with temptation, which includes the temptation to appear more pious than everyone else. With the surge of re-discovering the patristic and medieval period of Christianity in Evangelicalism, one of my worries is that some believers would co-opt the spiritual practices and theology of the church fathers and lord it over others who were less informed or use their spiritual practices to skirt moral and ethical issues Scripture warns against. We do not have to look too far to see examples. However, the flaunting of Christian spirituality and its misappropriation makes it void. Meditation done well should drive our pretensions away rather than enable them. Therefore, the more we meditate on the Word, the more it can be mapped over our lives since the practice’s goal is the application of Scripture. In short, meditation helps us decrease as Christ increases.

PR

This chapter is an excerpt from Tim Tschida’s book, The Garden of Scripture: Growing Your Confidence in the Bible (Resource Publications, 2025). Used with permission.

Coming Next from Tim Tschida: “Illusions And Fullness”

Notes

[1] Kraus, Theology of the Psalms, 161–162.

[2] Foster, Celebrations of Discipline, 21. Foster dedicates a whole chapter to the discipline of meditation and deftly cites Scripture to support its use in the Christian life while dispelling misconceptions of the practice.

[3] Foster, Celebrations of Discipline, 20.

[4] Jerome, Epistle 108, CSEL 55.334, as quoted in Hall, Scripture with the Church Fathers, 44–45.

[5] Jerome, Epistle 108.

[6] Foster, Celebrations of Discipline, 25.

[7] Johns, Re-Enchanting The Text, 3.

[8] McColman, The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, 50.

[9] Foster, Celebrations of Discipline, 28.

[10] Foster, Celebrations of Discipline, 31–33.

[11] Tim Tschida, The World Upside Down, 13–14. In the end of the first chapter, I link God separating the waters of chaos in Genesis 1 to God flooding the world in Genesis 6 because our sin seems to desire chaos, so God gave the chaos they wanted by giving them the flood waters. In this day and age, the chaos caused by sin can flood our lives, and God lets us experience that.

[12] Lorre, The Big Bang Theory.

[13] Opdal, “Curiosity, Wonder, and Education,” 331.

[14] Opdal, “Curiosity, Wonder, and Education,” 331.

[15] Hall, Theology With The Church Fathers, 10.

[16] Bonhoeffer, Meditating On The Word, 22.

[17] Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 159.

[18] Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 159.

[19] Bonhoeffer, Meditating on the Word, 22.