One of the things I think teachers and small group leaders need to be aware of is this tendency we have to rush to application. To want to be so practical that we miss the powerful in what Scripture teaches.
I don’t want people to hear me saying we shouldn’t do application. We have to. We don’t want to be like the people James talks about, who go to the Word of God, look in the mirror and walk away, forgetting what they look like. We want to put the Word of God into practice.
But sometimes, there’s this tendency to rush so quickly to application that we short-circuit that moment of awe the Scriptures are intending to evoke, what the Scriptures want us to feel.
One of my favorite examples of this is a story from Mark Galli. In this video, I share Mark’s story.
Not long ago, I was speaking to a group of student ministers on this very subject. We were talking about our tendency to become so familiar with some of the stories in the Bible that we are no longer awed by the truth of the narrative. I used the example of Jesus calming the storm as an example. How many of us hurry so quickly to apply that story to “Jesus’ presence with us during the storms of life” that we miss the moment of awe that led the disciples to say, “Who is this man? Even the wind and seas obey Him!” It’s fine to apply the account of Jesus calming the storm in various ways. But don’t rush to that application so quickly you miss the moment of awe.
A few days after my talk with the student ministers, one of them sent me a Tweet, saying, “I couldn’t sleep last night thinking… He really did silence the storm. Crazy.” The student minister had gone from over-familiarization with a famous story of Scripture to once again being captured by the power of the narrative. He marveled at the power of Jesus, which is exactly what the biblical authors intended our reaction to be.
