Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Psalm 23:4

Many years ago, I was given a copy of a talk by one of my favorite Bible teachers. In it she spoke about her husband’s sudden illness and passing from an incurable cancer. This woman, a gifted teacher and writer, and her husband had long planned to get their three boys reared and on their own, then work together to expand her ministry. It was at this point that he became ill.

In her talk, she made one point that I have never forgotten. All her years of Bible study flowed from her love of Scripture and her calling to be a teacher to women. But in going through that chapter of her husband’s illness and passing and in the aftermath of his death, she said she realized that everything she had studied about God for all those years was what she needed to make it through that time.

I have been involved in women’s Bible studies for nearly forty years and I have not only learned, but have been blessed by friendships with some wonderful women. Yet, too often, my focus has been on answering the questions, looking up the references, completing the lesson. For what I have retained, how much never took root?

Would we, could we, consider a new perspective on Bible study? Instead of the entire book of John (with background information and maps), how about a few chapters or a selection of important passages? Instead of a memory verse each week (that barely makes it into our short tern memory bank), why not a passage that we work on for the entire study? And how about application questions that don’t begin with “Was there ever a time when…”, but instead “if you suddenly lost someone close to you, how could this verse give you hope”?

I am always encouraged and humbled by stories of third world believers. Most of us have multiple copies of the entire Bible in various versions sitting undisturbed on our shelves. They wait months or years for a single copy of the New Testament in their language. 

We fall short of these beautiful people in so many ways, but I think the main difference is that they know that life is serious. Because of this they know what is of eternal worth. Can we say the same?

Nancy Shirah