Evotional.com - Mark Batterson

Just read a great article in the latest issue of Rev Magazine about Right-Brain Bible Study. I resonated with it because my next book, after Wild Goose Chase, will be on right-brain leadership. Thought I'd share a few notes and thoughts just to get the synapses firing in new ways.

The author, Helen Harray, talks about something she calls spiritual drawing. Instead of just reading through Scripture she has found that drawing helps her imagine the text. Reminds me of imaginative meditation taught by Saint Ignatius. He taught the importance of trying to imagine yourself in the text as one of the people. Try to get in the mind and in the heart of the original characters--what were they thinking and feeling. I think one of our greatest shortcomings in studying the Bible is the inability to really feel the text.

By the way, Nancy Beach did an amazing job of this at the Arise Conference. She preached the text of Psalm 40 in a way that helped everybody personalize it. The different elements, especially the drama, really helped us feel it. I think that is one key to preaching. I don't just want people to know it. I want them to feel it.

Here is a personal conviction. The Bible wasn't meant to be read. The Bible was meant to be meditated. Reading without meditating is like eating without digesting.

I don't think we should just read the Bible with our left-brain. We need to imagine the Bible with our right-brain. And spiritual drawing is one way of doing that. Here is the goal according to Helen Harray: "I consider a successful drawing to be one where I have a moment of insight about myself, a sense of intimacy with Jesus, or a revelation of God's Word."

If we read the Bible but we don't feel a greater sense of intimacy with the author, The Word Himself, has it really accomplished it's purpose?

One last thought.

I remember reading a book titled Creative Spirituality years ago and different artists were interviewed about the way they worship. A sculptor named Gregg Wyatt does "artistic devotions." Instead of just reading the book of Job, Wyatt meditates on William Blake's illustrations of the book of Job. I know that sounds very "subjective." Doesn't looking at pictures leave room for misinterpretation? Absolutely. But so does reading. Evidenced by hundreds of denominations! I'm certainly not suggesting that pictures replace words. But I think they can help us turn the kaleidescope and see new patterns in Scripture.

Love what Wyatt says: "Art is not simply a pretty picture or something to glance at as you go by, but to be meditated upon. It is like a library of great truth." Pictures help us visualize truth. That's what Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son did for priest and prolific author, Henri Nouwen. He said the painting made him want to "laugh and cry at the same time." It imprinted his soul in a way that the text could not.

Just read Psalm 104 this morning thanks to a twitter tip. As I was reading verse 8 I decided that I'm going to read the Psalms while I'm in the Grand Canyon in a month. I'll be surrounded by "paintings" illustrating the text.

Bottom line? A picture is worth a thousand words. Actually, it's ten million words. The brain processing print on a page at about 100 bits per second. The brain processes pictures at ten billion bits per second. The medieval church understood this. That's why they turned the gospel story in stained glass pictures. For what it's worth, that is what our media department does every time they edit and produce a video! We turn the screens at our three movie theater locations into postmodern stained glass.