My wife and I love to travel. I find it adventurous and risky to go somewhere that has a different language, culture, and customs. Traveling also helps me to realize that the world is so much bigger than myself and my own country. All the things that I take for granted such as handshakes, the English language, and college football have no place in these other destinations. Instead, they eat balut (Filipino street food), greet each other with kisses, and speak what sounds to me like gibberish. While I do not adapt to many of these changes since I will only be there for a week, it is respectful and obligatory that I learn and respect the culture of the place I visit.

Our familiarity with the Bible is often what makes us unattracted and even bored with God’s word. We have grown up hearing it and reading it most of our lives. It has been around for 2000 years and has not changed much since. What if we approached the Bible like an adventure? What if we thought about how exotic the Bible is and how it differs from any other book, movie, TV show, or media platform? The Bible didn’t drop down from heaven in the King James Version, but was written in a foreign context, in a foreign land, in foreign languages to a foreign audience. Reading God’s word is not like going to the same office every day to go to work. Reading scripture is like time traveling to a dangerous and unfamiliar land. It should fill us with excitement and wonder, not with boredom and apathy.

If you find yourself feeling bored and overly familiar with the Bible, you probably do not know it well enough. Become a refugee in the foreign land of God’s word and familiarize yourself with its culture, language, and history. It is only after we journey through the contexts of the Bible that we are able to apply its meaning to our own contexts.