Turning Back Again
By Anthony Casperson
11-2-24

He’d been trying to explain predestination from another perspective, hoping that the audience finally began to understand how it worked. Most of the video’s runtime had been spent discussing this idea.

The importance of understanding this thought of predestination came about because of his chapter by chapter approach to the book that he and his brother had been leading their audience through in another video series. And the most recent chapter they’d come across made them dive deep into the topic.

I guess discussions of time-travel can be difficult.

No, you didn’t read that last sentence incorrectly. The book that the pair of brothers had been reading for their near-millionth time was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And predestination came up because of the time-turner.

The brothers have a podcast where they discuss each of the Harry Potter books with an in-depth, chapter-by-chapter approach. Their multiple rereads of the series have led them to this point in search of new ways to experience the story, namely along with others in this intricate manner.

They’ve spent years thinking about and discussing the series. Hundreds of their videos dive into incredibly specific topics in the wizarding world. So many, in fact, that they’ve moved to more “what if…?” scenarios, just to keep up the discussion of the topic with fresh prespectives.

As I sat there watching the video, a thought struck me. This level of fandom—where we feel an incessant need to go through the words over and over again, and even memorize the most intricate of details—is kinda like what we followers of Jesus should have with God’s word.

I’m not saying that we should merely be fans of the bible. But that there should be an insatiable thirst for God and his communication with us. We should be like the psalmist when he writes in Psalm 119:20, “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.” And again in verse 24, “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” As well as verse 48, “I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.”

The whole of Psalm 119—the longest chapter in the bible—is about how closely the psalmist keeps the very word of God to his heart. How dear the word is to him. How desperately he clings to it. The word of God, his laws and statutes and commands and ordinances, are like refreshing water to his soul and like his daily sustenance. Without returning to it again and again, he’ll feel like he’s being dehydrated and starved.

Yet, if you talk to present day followers of Jesus, most will think about the bible as something that they really only need to think about on Sunday morning—and maybe one other day in the middle of the week. Unfortunately, some might even think of the bible as some outdated list of do’s and don’ts that they don’t really pay attention to.

And I feel the need to ask, why is it that some are so willing to read and reread their favorite books—or watch and re-watch their favorite TV series—and yet are so unwilling to even listen to the words of their God and Savior for the first time? Why is it a drudgery for us to come before the words of our God, who wants what’s best for us? How can the words of the one who saved us not be more important to us than words meant only to entertain us?

Could it be that being entertained is actually more important to us that being holy?

We followers of Jesus should, in fact, follow Jesus. And that’s kinda difficult to do when the only things we can quote are movie lines, sports stats, and memes. Instead of the things he taught and did.

I’m not saying that those other things are wrong or bad. But rather that if God is really the most important thing in our lives, then maybe we should spend more time with him, his word, and his people than we do. Y’know, book clubs where we go chapter by chapter through a book we’ve read multiple times can sit right alongside small groups where we go through various books of the bible in a chapter-by-chapter approach.

And definitely, we should read through Psalm 119 to see what it is that the psalmist sees in the word of God that we’re missing. There are even nice little breaks every 8 verses that show us what letter of the alphabet that each verse begins in the Hebrew language. Thus, we need not go through the entirety of the huge psalm in one sitting.

But there’s a little something inside of you that’s still hesitant, isn’t there? Something that finds you wanting to reach for an excuse. What is that all about? I think it’s the reason why we haven’t already invested ourselves into the word of God.

See, God’s word calls us to change, to be less like the habitual sinners that we are. Those things which we’ve gotten used to and like to do, but are terrible for our spiritual lives. And so, we run from the holy call God has for us in his word.

We don’t want to give up the sins that he speaks against. That sinful flesh inside of us doesn’t want the mirror raised to our faces, showing us what’s wrong in our lives. The monster of sin that dwells inside of us wants to run from the searching spotlight. Part of us wants to remain in our sinful pleasures, instead of growing in holiness. And that part would rather be entertained to numbness than convicted toward godliness.

Thus, when we think about spending time with God and his word, it discomforts us. But it is necessary all the more because of that fact.

So, let’s all spend more time with the word of God. And pray that God not only gives us understanding, but also the craving for his word that Psalm 119’s author had. Let’s return time after time back to his words like a true fan.