What if Bible Studies Were Badges?

Recently, I was in a conversation with a fellow pastor on our staff and he was sharing with me something that a mutual friend of ours had said in a conversation with him. She basically asked "what is up with you suburbanites and your quiet times?".

He responded, "what do you mean?"

"Well, I read the bible once and I closed it and I knew what I needed to do."

Basically, what she was saying was that she didn't see the need to read anymore until she had first acted on what she had already read...and for most of her adult life, she and her husband have chosen to live among the poorest of the poor in the inner city ministering and embodying the Gospel in that environment.

I'm not sure that I am in complete agreement with all of the implications of her statement of "I read it once" (and I am pretty sure she was just making a point and has read the Bible multiple times throughout her journey) but there is a poignant truth in what she is saying and I want to follow that trail for a moment.

In our present Christian culture we have access to some amazing Bible study resources. We have seen great men and women of God such as Henry Blackaby and Beth Moore publish incredibly insightful resources to help us further understand God's word. But, one possibly dangerous mindset that I have observed in myself and in others, is a badge mentality where if we were wearing our Christian uniform, it would be covered with all of these badges that show which bible studies we have completed and subtly, we would take great pride in our vast array of badges. We would have the "Experiencing God" badge prominently displayed on our sleeve and our "Purpose Driven Life" badge hanging off of our shoulder and our chest would be pimped out with a wide mix of Beth Moore and Max Lucado badges...

But here's the problem with badges. If I was in the military and I am wearing an "Expert" level rifle badge, then I am expected to be highly competent with a rifle and be able to fully act on all that the badge implies (marksmanship, assembly and disassembly, maintenance, etc.). If I am wearing the "Airborne" badge then it can be safely assumed that I have jumped out of a plane countless numbers of times and have mastery over every aspect of jumping out of a plane (jumping, landing, shoot preparation, shoot packing, etc.). And If I am to have the privilege of wearing a "Ranger" badge then I can be relied on to be able to and have had experience in carrying out any expectation of a highly elite soldier (the list is too long...think Rambo) and there would be a deep respect for what I have had to endure in order to wear that badge.

What if those same expectations were put on us? What if the accountability that we are held to rises with each Bible study that we have completed? I'm not sure if that's the case but it does make me wonder if I should go back and re-read some of the things I've read to make sure that I am actually trying to live out what I have read.

Here's the thing. I am not in any way being critical of the bible studies that have been written by people like Beth Moore and Henry Blackaby and based on what I know of them and their incredible integrity and honesty, they are only able to publish those Bible studies because they themselves have lived the content more than any of us realize. In many ways, those bible studies really are their own personal badges of testimony to what God has walked them through.

I also don't think we need to stop utilizing the Bible studies and more importantly, we never need to stop studying the Bible...but, maybe we need to lower the quantity of our intake in the same way that you would stop taking as many vitamins because most of them are just passing through and out the body because the body can only absorb so much at a time.

Maybe we should slow down and really chew on how we can live out the information that we now have. I know that for me, there's a lot of Bible studies that I have checked off of my list and stuck on my chest as one more badge I've earned when in truth, I couldn't tell you half of what the content of the Bible study was much less know that I have proficiently acted on the knowledge that I gained from it. I know I'm under grace and I'm so thankful for that but I also know that we as believers will still be held accountable for what we know and what we did with that knowledge....I'm thinking it would probably would wise for me to take some (maybe all) badges off of my uniform of pride and just ask God to help me to get better at acting on what I already know..