Blue Parakeet: Chap 3 - 5 Shortcuts

Chapter 3 is really good! Scot outlines five shortcuts that we typically take in reading the Bible. Before I give them, here's a kind of structure for all five.

Overview/Generalization

• we see God in some exclusive way or system - the emphasis is shifted, changed
• our relationship with God is determined by this system
• this leads us to hide something and lie to cover it
• the better way is to be non-exclusive, i.e. get over our need to have everything explained

Okay, now on to the details...

Shortcut 1: morsels of law

• sees God as cranky, impatient, judgemental - the emphasis is on His righteousness
• our relationship with God becomes dependent on our being good
• this leads us to hide our behavior and lie about it
• the better way is found in the writer of Psalm 119 - the law leads him to deeply love the Lawgiver

Shortcut 2: morsels of blessings

• takes a lot of those blessings out of context - sees God as a doting grandmother
• our relationship with God becomes diagnosed by "are we being blessed?"
• this leads us to hide our circumstances and lie about them
• the better way is to read the entire story, seeing the ups and downs

Shortcut 3: inkblots

• sees God as we see ourselves - emphasis becomes justifying our story
• our relationship with God is defined by tweaking the facts
• this leads us to hide non-supporting facts and lie about their existence
• the better way is to admit that I can't explain the mysterious

Shortcut 4: mapping God's mind

• sees God as finite, understandable - the emphasis becomes categorization
• our relationship with God is defined by how smart we are
• this leads us to hide our doubts and lie about our certainties
• the better way is to admit that we don't know

Shortcut 5: maestros

• sees God from a chosen POV - emphasis is on code words more than relationship
• our relationship with God is defined by our personal, particular Biblical view
• this leads us to hid parts of scripture and lie about their significance
• the better way is to take it all in without ignoring things that don't fit - of course to do that, you have to admit that your favored way of viewing things is unable to explain everything

More about each of these later.