Johnny on the Spot

Flannel boards, Vacation Bible Schools, Sunday school, sword-drills (competitive races to locate a passage in the Bible), thrice-weekly youth group, and literally months of Christian summer camp, retreats, and mission projects imprinted the importance and holiness of the Bible into my identity. Twenty years later, I still look to locate my own everyday experiences in the stories and teachings of the Bible. But one thing has changed for me.As a youth, I distinctly remember feeling a need to safeguard the Bible, to prevent it from being broken apart by doubt or suspicion, scientific inquiry or criticism, to reign in imagination that might pose contradictions or challenges to the way of life I had internalized from various teachings. Truth be told, I was afraid of breaking apart myself. Over time, I have come to realize that God might just be asking me to break open- to larger life, to grace, to God's artistry in even the offensive or banal- instead of being broken apart. John's Gospel might just be trying to break Jesus open to faith, using Greek philosophical inquiry, a focus on signatory events and their significance, cultural and religious archetypes, and rabbinic inquiry, to name a few. I add my own study of words, traditions, psychology, science, and mission in the pages that follow and hope and pray that John's Gospel, the Bible, and your spiritual life might increasingly be broken open to God's grace and goodness.