When I was *gainfully* employed, I imposed a fairly strict hearing protection policy on myself. It didn't require a great deal of pain or enforcement though, because I had rigged a set of earphones into my 'muffs. I could run a wire down the inside of my shirt to my mp3 player and spend a good chunk of the day completely isolated from the world. Aahhhhhh. Blessed solitude.
I studied songs. I read books. I could even listen to podcasts from some of my favorite pastors and preachers. But one of my favorite things to do was to just listen to the bible.
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When I was in college I had a really tough time figuring out what I should major in. I started out with no major at all. Just a pre-professional program. The registrar took it upon himself to select what HE thought was an appropriate major for me: History. Well, when I saw that, I thought to myself, self, maybe you BETTER study up. You just might find out when you signed up for THAT. So I changed it. I think I changed it to Psychology. A couple semesters of that, and I thought, maybe English Literature. So I switched it to that. I spent a year and change doing that. I took some poetry courses (ahh, matters of the heart), and explored my ontological angst from a literary and artistic perspective.
During my "English period" (as I like to call it) I had the good fortune to take a class on Shakespearean literature from a highly charged professor named Bob DeSmith. He REALLY liked the Bard, and infectiously spread light into what had previously been very dark and ambiguous language. I found that when he read it, his expression and vocal inflection was like a 500W halogen bulb on the page.
A theatre prof, Simon duToit, had a similar impact on me (I only experimented with theatre, never even considered majoring) with MacBeth. The language took on so much meaning when read out loud---it was like---magic. It went from being this lofty, majestic, babble-speak to...human language.
Finally, I confess, Hollywood livened Shakespeare for me too. Watching Mel Gibson's adaptation of Hamlet, and Ken Branagh's of Much Ado about Nothing, Baz's Romeo + Juliet, had very similar impacts. Something that was inserted into the text that made it come alive, human: voice...voce.
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I went to a pretty small Christian college, located in a reasonably sized rural town. Now, that judgment is in hind sight. I was coming to it from a small city, so I suffered some pretty significant culture shock. But I came to love the small town. But I digress. Again. Key to the topic at hand was the absolute immersion into what was a fairly homogeneous "Christian ghetto."
After my "English period" I finally fell into something I really loved and could come to use for the rest of my life: Philosophy. (Now, some of you are saying to yourself "didn't he do that after History?" and the answer is no. Not quite). Philosophy was where I learned some really great three-dollar words like ontological, and weltenshaung, and angst. That's where I learned to ask questions that couldn't be answered, use words like absurd in an altogether fresh way (for me), and to answer questions with another question.
One thing I simply couldn't learn was how to read the bible, God's written word, as an academic AND as a believer. OH! Years and years afterwards, the bible didn't get cracked. But my faith grew. I never stopped believing. I never even really stopped practicing. But the bible was like dust in my mouth. I couldn't read it apart from my philosophical practice. Was that my discipline's fault? No. Professors? Nope, not them either. Mine. Sin. Whatever. It was a problem though. Until I remembered the strength of voice.
That was when I started buying up narrated bibles. I never went in for the James Earl Jones collection, or Larry King (I'd consider Johnny Cash I think). Just good old fashioned narrated by some shmoe in Grand Rapids NIV bible. Not bad. I could spend time in the word, and it started to sound different in my head.
But when I found out that you could buy DRAMATIZED audio bibles, that just about blew my socks inside out. Geekie, huh? Well, I've purchased two. And they have been at times hokie (like when "everybody" says the same thing at once), and frightening (Revelations, or Ezekial can get pretty intense). But the most remarkable thing has happened. I started to hear Jesus' voice. I started to understand Jesus, the man. His language became human...more real, more sensible. More...*real*.
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When I worked, I could spend, literally, hours listening to stories the God's ongoing and covenental grace to the Israelites. Stories of God's superheroes and super-failures. And I could listen to Jesus walking through his short life with his thick-headed, low-life bottom feeder friends. I started to think I might actually be getting to know Jesus a little better.
...more to come...
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