Obscured Visions

"What is your vision of human flourishing?

Without answering this question, everything we do in life is distraction and evasion, to keep hiding our face from God, like Adam and Eve."

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Dear Kate,

You asked me to help you to prepare for leading Bible study, and I said I have nothing to offer.

Whatever I have to offer I already did.

Ask questions, as usual, would be my first and last and perennial suggestion for a reader of any season.

What I mean is not to question the text.  Yes, question the text we must, but, you see, if our questions about the text are genuine and truth-seeking, we would not have been perpetually stuck at the most superficial questioning and would have already realized books written on even the littlest book in the Bible can fill a library, scholarship high as mountain, cultural implications deeper than any tooth could sink into.  If we are still forking the broccoli bits on top as if that's enough to dismiss the banquet, we should grow up.  If we choose to behave like a spoiled child, we should at least grow some decency to admit to our self-destructive insistence.

What I mean, then, is to let the text question us.

Say, today's quote, a question, I wrote that to a friend yesterday, someone who asked for "wisdom" in investing.  I hope you can tell which book of the Bible asked me that question (which I only passed along).

And of course, a question like this is meant to provoke more questions (and thus the mountain and sinking teeth) such as, Why the hell should I submit to any vision of anything, let alone something as absurd and obscure as "human flourishing"?  Can't I just jerk off in front of a screen and call it a night and still see myself as "flourished" somewhat for the day?  Can't I just show up at church (kind of) and get God off my back?  Can't I be nicer to my family, take them out to dinner, buy them a new house, bake more at home, climb up the roof and mow the lawn and fix the pipe and be appreciated for who I am, someone who tries his best despite all?

Great questions the Bible asks us.  Great questions to ask ourselves in a Bible study.

Yours, Alex