Why Didn’t I Get It?
When I was a kid I was taught three things in our home by my Dad.
- It is important to go to the church.
- It is important to give to the church.
- And it is important to read the Bible.
Though my Dad at the time did not yet have personal faith in Christ, these things he got right. So we did those things, well, except for the last one. I tried to read my Bible, but somehow something didn’t connect.
Why didn’t I get it?
I had three Bibles that were very special to me. One was given to my Dad when he was drafted for the Korean War. It had a steel plate on the front, given by grandma to keep near his heart, really some cool messages there. I had a Bible given to me at my confirmation and baptism. That was at age nine, a cool experience to me, but I still didn’t get it. And maybe my favorite one, a red Bible given to me at school by the Gideon’s in fifth grade.
“He restoreth my soul”.
I tried to read them. The only thing that was familiar to me was Psalm 23. That was because I had a Little Golden Book with illustrated Psalm 23 when I was a little guy. I still remember the picture of the little lamb on the page that said, “He restoreth my soul”. So when I picked up the Bible to read it, I would read that, and sometimes read Psalm 24, so I knew the Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.
Besides that, it was confusing. I would say it was because of names that were hard to pronounce or the archaic language of the King James version. It was roughly the same experience as taking Shakespeare in English class. But not really, there was something there that was a disconnect and I could not understand why.
In ninth grade I attended a youth meeting at a church. The things that my family taught me were still important to me, but though we meant well, it was empty religion. It did not solve my disconnect. At the youth meeting a girl shared that she had tried to find God through religion and no matter how hard she tried, it always fell short. That caught my attention.
Then she said she realized that she could do nothing to find a relationship with God in and of herself. She pointed out that she was a sinner, and “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). She shared that she could not reach out to God, but God reached out to her, to all of us. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but though me” (John 14:6). It is not a religion, but a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. She said she asked Jesus into her heart and He gave her new life, eternal life. That weekend, I did too.
All of a sudden, the things I read made sense.
Much to my surprise, it solved the disconnect with the Bible. All of a sudden, the things I read made sense, and I was eager to learn more. And I wondered, why didn’t I get it before? I got my answer in 1 Corinthians 2:14. “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised”. As a natural man, without Christ, without a relationship with God, it was foolishness to me. But now that I had the Spirit of God in my heart, I could get it! It turned the light on for me!
Life is a lot better with the lights on!
Have you looked at the Bible and wondered why you don’t get it? It is God’s letter written to His children. Would you like to become a child of God? “God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Would you believe in Jesus Christ, ask Him to be your Savior? Life is a lot better with the lights on!
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