Noah built an ark.
Daniel survived the lion’s den. His besties walked out of a fiery furnace without the slightest burn.
David killed a giant … Jonah was whale vomit …. and Adam and Eve ruined everything.
Sound familiar? If you grew up in church like I did, you’ve heard these stories, sang the songs about them and even watched the Veggietales animated versions. We know them beginning to end. I mean, we know the characters and plot lines, the twists and spoilers, and the one liner truth we are supposed to apply to our lives.
That’s the problem.
The real truth behind the familiar tale
We know these Sunday School classics a little too well. It’s like a movie you’ve seen a million times. Eventually the excitement of it wears off. You may love the movie, you may enjoy watching it over and over, but it doesn’t hold the same impact it did the first time you saw it, mostly because you know how it ends and the ending never changes.
We know how all these Bible stories end. We know who wins and who loses and we forget that they didn’t…
- When Noah built that ark he didn’t know what a boat was or what a flood looked like
- When Daniel went into the cage with those lions he didn’t know he was going to walk back out
- When David stepped up to take on Goliath he didn’t know one stone would do the job
We have the advantage of time.
We get to look back at the miracles and heroism and enjoy the story because we know it will all work out. We know Noah will be safe and Jonah will come to his senses and David is the guy that becomes king. Because we know the ending we lose the impact of the choices these heroes of our faith made.
What did these Bible characters really feel?
All of these BIble heroes were human like us.
They had doubts, fears and insecurities just like we do. They had to figure out if God’s voice really was God’s voice. They had to steady shaking hands and fight the fear that told them they were going to fail, that this wasn’t going to end well.
To us, these men and women of faith are larger than life. But they were just like you, dealing with all the things you deal with even if it doesn’t look the same.
They weren’t better than you. They weren’t braver than you. They weren’t smarter than you.
Read their stories again with fresh eyes
Get your Bible and go back and read their stories with that in mind. Think about the worries that probably flooded their minds when they faced daunting tasks and dangerous obstacles.
Think about what others probably said about them behind their back and how terrified they had to have been when they took those first steps of obedience.
Forget that you know how the story ends and read it like you are walking with them. Instead, ask these questions:
- How would you react?
- What would you do?
- How were they able to do what they did?
- What made them different?
- What made them brave?
- What gave them confidence to take the risks?
- What was their understanding of God?
Suddenly, these classic tales that are all too familiar become new adventures that will inspire our own faith. Fresh eyes will take you to new levels with these legacies, revealing new depths of not only their character, but the character of God.
You will find that being a hero of the faith isn’t as out of reach as you might have thought.