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Wrestling with Proverbs

During the month of May my congregation is reading one chapter of Proverbs every day. If anyone else wants to join in, I encourage you to do so! Proverbs is a book all about helping people grow in wisdom. I also have a confession.

Proverbs is the one book of the Bible I struggle with the most.

I think if we are completely honest, we don't necessarily like every part of the Bible. We all have favorite books and parts that we go back to again and again. We also have parts we that we just don't know what to do with.

This is something we need to be honest about. The Bible is a complex myriad of poetry, history, biography, law code, and so much more. Different parts are bound to appeal to different people. That's OK! This is one of the reasons we need each other, to help shore up one another's weaknesses and struggles.

For me Proverbs is where I struggle the most. I like themes and structure. I like tracing an overarching narrative or point through a whole work. Huge chunks of Proverbs is just a collection of pithy sayings of wisdom. There is no grander narrative or unifying message. I struggle with this.

This means that this month of reading Proverbs is all the more important for me. The parts of the Bible we struggle with the most are often the parts we need to dive into the deepest. Be it the law codes of Leviticus, the awkward poetry of the Song of Songs, the terrifying images of Revelation, or whatever you struggle with the most I encourage you to dig deep and let the Bible challenge you.

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