Consider this scenario:
There you are sitting on a train and the person opposite you suddenly looks up (you probably don't know them, or if you do, not that well) and starts reading their book out loud, what would you do? Would you:
a. Move,
b. Tell them to shut up,
c. Start sucking your thumb and get comfortable because it's 'story time', or
d. Would you put your earpods in and turn up the volume on your digital music device?
Well I don't use the train that much so that's not something I'm really going to experience but I do have to endure a parallel to this in the number of time that I might go to a social media site and find someone I know (generally not that well) has posted a whole gobbet of a book they are reading onto the page. Often it is some trite tosh from one of the big haired, well-meaning, well-heeled American televangelists, you most likely know what I mean (and if you don't, one recently went a bit like this:
"Be of good cheer for God hears and sees and He is here and you are not alone in your struggles so keep yourself firm and stable for God has your deliverance planned. What you are experiencing now is only in the now but God has you placed in the eternity of Hos being and your being and His are one. . . . "
Now, I wasn't experiencing anything until I read that and then the clouds appeared and the growing sense of 'being read to' crept up on me and so, like those who greet their neighbour with a loud shout in the morning, I was niggled and frustrated. So I hid them author and continued.
Then, on Christmas day, another well meaning person posted today's reading and began to shout about the naming and circumcision of Jesus! Now I don't wish to be churlish here but I was actually enjoying a Christmas morning and the cord had not long been cut when there we were naming and circumcising Him! Then, to place a cherry on the cake, the self same person sent me a passage which saw Jesus marking up the road to Golgotha!
'Blimey' (thought I) 'Can't I enjoy the birth of Jesus, the Christ-child, for just a few hours before I marvel at the gift of life he has given me through the Cross? Can't I marvel at the gift of life that is Jesus and be thankful to the Father for this outworking of His love?
And of course the answer is a resounding 'NO" because the phone wobbled and there the same person was again this time with:
'The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion To judge the mountain of Esau, And the kingdom will be the LORD'S.' (Obad 1)
Got to be honest, by now I was thinking extremely black thoughts - so I put the phone away and continued being both blessed and (hopefully) a blessing.
But here is a simple plea for 2013:
If you are reading a book and enjoying it, then I am pleased for you - I don't need you to read it to me!
If you have a Bible passage that is doing something in your life, then I am happy to hear it, but unless you are going to contextualise it and put flesh on the situation, the passage and the ways that it is meeting your needs - then don't just post the blessed thing because it more than likely means nothing to me and does nothing for me!
And if you ignore these two simple requests you might just find that you get a response that sits badly with the place you are in.
A 'for instance' - recently out of the blue someone posted:
'The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.'
(ps 34)
And appeared to be most upset when they received the response, 'Well that's good news for QPR supporters tonight then!'
If you read out loud you will have to expect contextually ambiguous responses - 2013 is the year of them and gentle warnings:
Pax