Everyone knows Sister Kandi loves the Star Wars Series. So from the latest Star Wars installment that came out-The Last Jedi, let's talk about what you can learn from Yoda about reading your Bible. ***minor spoiler alert if you haven't seen***
Yoda appears to Luke Skywalker in his self-imposed island exile. Luke reveals that he’s going to burn down the ancient tree and the sacred texts that it contains. He’s obviously conflicted about such a huge break with tradition and so his former master, Yoda, appears to counsel and reassure him. It’s not hard to see the reference to the tree as a picture of institutional religion and the sacred Jedi texts as references to religious holy books like the Bible.
Yoda replies, “Read them, have you? Page-turners they were not.” Although Luke has spent his entire life ‘guarding’ the ancient Jedi texts, he’s sheepish to admit that he hasn’t given much time to actually reading them. And his 900-year-old master, who apparently has read them, admits that they’re pretty boring. Yoda admits, “Wisdom they held, but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess.” He’s not actually discounting the value of the texts altogether, but he feels that a reasonably sensible 20-something like Rey instinctively knows everything that the books might otherwise teach. If none of this sounds familiar to you, you obviously haven’t spoken to a teenager lately. And it’s not just teenagers who share these feelings – this is the world we live in! But these words give insight into how we can reach it.
1.) Don’t just defend the Bible, read it: People have heard a lot of Christians arguing about their favorite verses but they need to hear more Christians who regularly read the Scriptures. We lose credibility when we’re seen, like Luke, to be guarding the Bible more than reading it.
2.) Don’t just read the Bible, read it with awe: Too many people have concluded, with Yoda, that the Bible is a bore. It’s not good enough for us to just go through the motions of reading Scripture – we need to read it with awe and express its wonders and delights.
3.) Be desperate for the wisdom of God’s Word: Christians today are often guilty of assuming that they know what they’re doing. There’s no urgency to read the Bible ourselves because we figure that the almost-weekly sermon we get on Sunday has given us all we need to live our lives. Christians are not meant to be self-sufficient.
4.) Live your life in light of eternity, not just the moment: It’s easy to live life in the moment, and our world keeps tempting us to do so. But people who “look to the horizon” and live in light of heaven, hell and eternity, have the conviction to make the hard choices and entrust judgment to God instead of taking it up ourselves. Our world needs to see this kind of Christianity.
5.) Read the Bible to know God not just for how to be a better person: It’s important to be practical. God wants us to apply the Bible to our daily lives. But despite the appeals of our age, the Bible is not mainly about how to live a better life. The Bible is a book about God and we need to read the Bible as a means of knowing Him and deepening our intimacy with Him.
If you’ve never made a habit of daily Bible reading, you’ll never have a better opportunity. And if you are a regular Bible reader, I’m hoping this light-hearted devotion helps you want to grow in your love and devotion for God as He’s revealed in the Scriptures. I’d encourage you to plan now to be a part of it.