I’m a note-taker. Not that I refer back to them very often (usually only when I have to write a report justifying my reason to be there in the first place), but I find that writing keeps me engaged. I’ve got notebooks full of sermon notes on my shelf right now, but have recently moved over to using a Rocketbook, which uses a special ink on plasticized pages that allows you to scan what you’ve written and save it on Google Drive if you want. Then you just use a wet cloth to erases the pages for reuse. I like it, but I seldom scan the pages anymore. I’ve realized over the years that I’ve never gone back through the notes to see what was said. Still, taking them keeps me sharp and attentive.
It might come as a surprise to the speaker though that I’m not always writing what they’re saying. On occasion, a random thought might find its way in – sometimes through what they said, sometimes just…randomly – and in those cases I’ll flip to the back of the book and write it down. There’ve been times I’ve written nearly a page in the past, and maybe the speaker is encouraged by seeing my furious scribbling. But this should serve to let them know that they shouldn’t be.
In any case, before I erase the book again (I’ll usually fill most of it before taking it to the sink for a good scrubbing), here are a couple of those thoughts for what they’re worth:
People will paint a very thin veneer of Christianity over their own beliefs. Just a taste of it, ignoring vast swaths of its entirety. That’s so easy to do if you want to discount the Bible. But if you discount the Bible, on what foundation do you even claim any of the Christian faith? How do you know who Jesus is and what he said? If you say any part of the Bible is just human fabrication, how can you claim that any of it is real at all? And if you claim it is legend with a kernel of truth, what kernel? If one chooses as they wish, they’re left with a god of their own making, covered by a veneer of the real thing.
How can we approach those who just can’t understand? We must account for their views in ours, even if we know their views are wrong. We must understand how they are wrong in the context of our own approach to life and be able to explain, if only for ourselves, why our way encompasses theirs and accounts for their error. They bristle for a reason, but they also may not be far of.
Those who downplay the Word do not normally study the Word diligently. They probably don’t read it daily and meditate upon it. The paradox? That you need to search the Word diligently to understand its importance to your faith. In order to know God well, you have to know what he has said. In order to know what he has said, you have to read the Bible.
Debate among the ignorant? That’s what social media presents: someone with a smidgeon of knowledge takes on the idiots and uniformed and is satisfied that what they are doing is good enough. I’d rather listen to debate of the best of each side. We must steelman the arguments before we can make truly informed decisions.