Boiled Eggs

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…” Hebrews 4:12 This "summer" we have 12 university students in Zimbabwe working with our team. One of these students, Megan Scott, a recent graduate of Samford who will be doing graduate work at UAB this fall in Birmingham is here working with her partner Courtney Dunkerley. (Megan is on the left in the picture below.

Megan and Courtney are volunteering at the Baptist Orphan Care Center in Mberengwa. They are living in a small hut that has been refurbished by Baptist church members in Mberengwa for use by the Care Center.

Megan shared this testimony: There are seasons in my spiritual life where reading the Bible is like boiled eggs. Now I love eggs almost any which way but boiled. I seriously dislike eating them. But, since I’ve been at the Caring Center, somehow or other it was communicated to our caretaker that we like boiled eggs, so we’ve been getting them. Every day. The first day we were served one, I decided that even though I despised them, I would eat it so I wouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings. Also, I figured it would be good for me (protein and all that) – even if I didn’t like the taste, it was still a good call. Then the next day we got another one; and the day after that, and the day after that. It finally got to the point where I couldn’t say anything about not liking boiled eggs. I knew that would raise the question “Well why are you eating them?” or they would thinking I was disposing of them some other way instead of eating them.

So, I just kept eating them. Then, something strange happened. I began to actually look forward to that boiled egg every morning. And just as suddenly, we stopped getting them. Well wouldn’t you know it (and I grudgingly had to admit it to myself), I actually missed that boiled egg. I felt unfulfilled the rest of the day. I never satisfied my hunger, even with the other snacks I was eating. I realized the egg I was eating in the morning was in fact helping me, as much as I held a grudge against them in the beginning. I was gaining something everyday I ate an egg, and I didn’t realize it until it was gone. Like I said, sometimes I view reading the Bible like I did boiled eggs. If I was consistent in reading for a while then got off track, I dreaded going back to the Word. I felt as though God would be angry with me if I didn’t read the Bible every day, and I also believed that I would be seen as less of a Christian by others. This discouraged me even more from cracking it open. I didn’t despise the Word itself, but rather the guilt I felt because I was not burying my nose in the Bible everyday. I never felt like I had enough discipline, enough time in the day…pretty much just fill in the blank for an excuse and I’m sure I’ve used it. My motivation was fear. Recently though, I began to see the Bible in a different light. A.W. Tozer says: “the Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in His universe... [people] may admit that they should accept the Bible as the Word of God, and they find it impossible to believe that they words there on the page are actually for them.” That has been my attitude far too often. But I know that our God is an articulate God in His universe. I’ve experienced His presence, in the African sunsets that take my breath away, in the ringing laughter of a child He’s created, and even in the air I breathe, day in and day out. I know my God is a living God, so the words He speaks through His word are living also. And that makes me want to love the Bible. It makes me want to soak in its truth and drink in what God wants to say to me. So I started reading. Every day. And wouldn’t you know it, if I miss a day now, I can feel it. Achingly so. Like a hunger that hasn’t been satisfied, I ache. And it makes me want to stop whatever I’m doing to go find my Bible and spread it wide open, eating of it’s truth and rejoicing over the fact that His word is Living, and it is good.