I interviewed myself earlier this week, right? And I dumped a bunch of new info.I'm not Young Adult, even though I love reading books of the genre. I think I've lived AT LEAST two lives, not counting my imagination, which is rampant. I'm not done, yet, either. In my review of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, I quoted Lye bathing September's courage. I just love that entire scene. I'm one of those people that got an overdose of courage or something (rather dangerous) right at the Beginning and I keep jumping into new Ventures of all sorts with some impossible Hope that "it'll work out".
In my interview, I made all sorts of comments to my Other Life, where I traveled a lot (not to the North Pole, but isn't that a cool picture?!) as an MK. (Missionary's Kid... sorta like PK, Pastor's Kid, only sometimes less rebellious... also sorta like being a Army Brat, only with weirder expectations.) And then I said something about having "an irreligious view of the Bible". So this is explaining that.
I love the Bible, I don't care so much for religion.
My dad started me on that path. He memorizes bits of the Bible regularly which gives him different perspectives than what's taught at church. Sometimes. Oddly enough. I love hearing the latest weird thing he discovers by digging deeper like that. He's still a missionary, btw, with my mom and others of my family. My sister writes Sunday School & VBS Curriculum in Spanish, which I posted about.My honey, Cool, Man, has strengthened my divergence from religious stuff since he's an honest bad boy who met God. He sees Fake a mile away, and it's been my pleasure to leave as much of that behind as I can.
That's not to say that Tradition isn't beautiful. There's lots of wonderful things about religious traditions. (Please don't get mad at me!!)
What I like best are ROOTS. I like to ask WHY?! I like checking into the history of a church. My favorite example is Martin Luther - the awesome man who King Jr. was named after. He started the Lutheran church based on a truth he found in the Bible, that "the just shall live by faith" vs. works. That one bit of Word changed his life and started a huge chain reaction. I think that's totally amazing!!
I do the same thing with the Bible. When I hear something interesting or have a question, I look it up. Most of my non-fiction library are references so I can research in the original languages. I have a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, too, but sometimes there's more to it & I like to dig deeper in the Hebrew & Greek. I had a teacher at Life Bible College who read to us out of a Hebrew Psalms to teach us who the Holy Spirit is and I still get goosebumps when I hear "Hallelujah". There is so much packed into that one word!!!I'm kinda torn about sharing Bible related things. Mostly 'cause people have such strong opinions regarding what they've been taught or whether they agree, disagree, or don't want to hear if the idea came from there. I certainly don't want to bring up interesting questions just to get schooled on what various churches think about it. You know what I mean? On the other hand, there's so much hidden in the Bible!!
My first book idea came from dreaming about what it would be like to literally be buried and come to life again, changed. What if people were seeds and when they died, their first life was like the death of a buried seed and their second life literally grew out of that. I imagined this huge forest of trees and these little people who didn't realize the grand lives growing up around them. What a different twist on Dryads!! But see what I mean? That's not what the Paul meant in Romans 6:4 at all.
And, um, I might make a lot of people really mad if I talk about it!!! Lol. I mean, on one hand, I question what I'm told to research it myself, and on the other, I let my imagination run free and see where it goes! *ahem* That's why I said that, that I have an irreligious view of the Bible.
My current life verse - the one I live by and weigh my thoughts & actions against - is Matthew 22:37-40:Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."The first is my pleasure, the song of my life, the reason I breathe. The second is where all the fun stuff comes from... why I enjoy blogging and meeting like-minded people, why I ask fun questions so I can get to know my readers, why I attempt to avoid bringing up divisive subjects like who's right or wrong or lives on the moon.
So, what do you think?
Would it be interesting to look at the Bible from an irreligious viewpoint?
Or would it be argumentative?
I've always wondered about posting my own sort of "Bible Study", but I haven't 'cause, well, it'd be different lookin' than the weekly church visit!! Lol. And I might make all sorts of people really uncomfortable, which, obviously, is the opposite of my plan. What do you think?
