Bring Your Bible to School?

I read on Facebook that Focus on the Family is sponsoring a “Bring Your Bible to School” day in October. The comments, as I expected, were all in favor. Some people even asked, “Why does everyone else get to show their faith and we have to hide ours?”

I was a bit stunned when I read this comment. For one thing, it sounded like a six-year-old whining because he didn’t get his candy bar at the store and his brother did. What happened to mature faith?

For another, Christianity does happen to be the faith that is most often identified in polls as people’s chosen faith.

Hide our beliefs? I don’t think so.

Some Perspective

I never took a Bible to school. Everyone knew that I was a Christian.

It’s true.

I never put tracts in people’s lockers. Everyone knew I was a Christian.

This is Not simply about “the good old days”.

I didn’t take a Bible to school for two reasons:

First, at the time, I did not own one that I could reas. I am blind, and I needed a Bible in braille.

Second, a braille Bible takes up about five feet of shelf space. If I took a braille Bible to school, I would need a couple of pushcarts to carry it around. and How many people do you suppose would actually stick around while a blind girl came barreling toward them pushing a cart full of big bricks and saying, “Hey, let me tell you about Jesus!” Would you hang around and let that cart come right up to you? Or would you be smart and skitter right out of that blind kid’s way?

I thought so.

In Troubled Times, Do What Works

So how did everyone at school get to know I was a Christian?

I used the same methods that have worked since ancient times. I was not always good at them. In fact, I was young and immature, and sometimes I was pretty bad at them. But one thing was always true: people knew where I stood.

In biblical times, no one had a Bible. The Gospel was spread through two means: behavior and testimony. Behavior demonstrates our faith; and testimony is our explanation of the reason for it.

Jesus spoke directly against using things like lengthy public prayers in order to show how righteous a person was. Instead, he said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:35, NASB)

Of course, there is much more in the pages of the Bible that is for us to use to mature in our faith. But I do not need to show it off like an honor badge. That is not what following Jesus is about. If I need pats on the back from nonbelievers, then I need to reevaluate the kind of faith I have … because I am living the kind of life that Jesus confronted Pharisees for living.

The Joy of Waiting

One of the most important lessons I have learned in my adult life is that sometimes I do not see the fruits of things that I do until many years later. During my young life, great emphasis was sometimes placed on “winning souls” and pushing people toward making decisions to follow Jesus.

I never felt good about this, and so I never did it. That meant that I never answered very favorably when the question came about how many people I had helped to make decisions.

In biblical texts, I don’t find Jesus asking people to pray the four spiritual laws, etc. I do find him interacting with people where they are. Sometimes they follow him. Sometimes they walk away. Perhaps that is something we should pay more attention to.

As an adult, I get calls from people who remember things about me. Sometimes all they remember is the fact that I liked the Christian radio station instead of the one they liked, or I didn’t participate in telling dirty jokes, and when they asked why i answered simply that I didn’t feel it was the right behavior for me. When they were ready, they chose to discuss their faith choices with me. My place was to be available when the time came.

I never took a Bible to school. I did not need to.

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About Sarah Blake LaRose

Sarah Blake LaRose teaches Biblical Hebrew and Greek at Anderson University School of Theology and Christian Ministry in Anderson, Indiana. She is one of three blind academic scholars who received the Jacob Bolotin Award from the National Federation of the Blind in 2016 in recognition of innovative work in the field of access to biblical language texts and tools for people who are blind. In addition to her work as a professor, she provides braille transcription services specializing in ancient languages. Her research interests concern the intersection of disability, poverty, and biblical studies.

About Sarah Blake LaRose

Sarah Blake LaRose teaches Biblical Hebrew and Greek at Anderson University School of Theology and Christian Ministry in Anderson, Indiana. She is one of three blind academic scholars who received the Jacob Bolotin Award from the National Federation of the Blind in 2016 in recognition of innovative work in the field of access to biblical language texts and tools for people who are blind. In addition to her work as a professor, she provides braille transcription services specializing in ancient languages. Her research interests concern the intersection of disability, poverty, and biblical studies.

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