Confession

There is, in a word, nothing comfortable about the Bible -- until we manage to get so used to it that we make it comfortable for ourselves. But then we are perhaps too used to it and too at home in it. Let us not be too sure we know the Bible ... just because we have learned not to have problems with it. Have we perhaps learned ... not to really pay attention to it? Have we ceased to question the book and be questioned by it?
~Thomas Merton, Opening the Bible~

I must confess, despite loving the Bible, I do not read it as regularly as I would like. I even avoid it at times, because it is hard. It it challenging not just because sometimes I feel it is asking me to live up to a standard higher than I can even dream. (I know we all think the Sermon on the Mount is nice and all, but really do you know anyone that lives up to it? If you do can you introduce me?) But more it is hard to read, because I am not sure why on earth it is the best story I have to tell me who God is. I want the book to tell me more, and I want the stories to make sense together.