For the Bible Tells Me So

Today's question: How has your own understanding of the Bible changed over the course of your life?

Even though no one in my immediate family was a literalist when it came to scripture, I am pretty sure I went through a literal phase when I was younger. But, then again, I literally thought Santa Claus was real too. We tend to be literal creatures as children. At some point, we figure out that the world is not always what it seems. We also figure out how, as children, to take the grain of truth from a story while simultaneously understanding that it's just a story. But, for some of us, we aren't able to do that with the Bible. We set the Bible apart and can't seem to say, "I don't know if it happened in exactly this way, but I know this is true."

In college, I took a lot of theology classes and learned to love the meaning of the text beyond the literal word on the page. I craved the way we approached texts in school as something to be dissected. But, that made my devotional reading of scripture take a nose dive. It took years for me to be able to let me experience interact with the text on face value. Most days, I do a combination of both. But, always, i have to open myself up to the presence of the Holy Spirit in reading, asking god to "add blessing" to my reading and understanding of the text.