Reading to Encounter, Not Just Inform

The psalmist does not say, 'Help me to understand your law.' He says, 'Open mine eyes.' There is a humility in that distinction. Understanding implies something we accomplish on our own — careful reading, good scholarship, a sharp mind. Open mine eyes implies that something is already there to be seen, and we need help to see it.

We live in an age that prizes information. We consume it constantly, efficiently, in quantity. When this habit carries into our Bible reading, we end up treating Scripture like a data source — mining it for facts, doctrines, arguments, quotes. These things are not bad. But they are not the same as encounter.

Encounter is what happened to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when a stranger opened the Scriptures to them and their hearts burned within them. It is what happened to Augustine when he read Romans 13 in a garden and felt the long pursuit of his restless heart come to rest at last. It is what happens — quietly, undramatically, and often without warning — when we read not to accumulate but to be found.

Practically, this means slowing down. It means asking questions of the text rather than just extracting propositions from it. What is happening here? Why does this word appear? What would it feel like to be the person in this story? What is God like, in this passage?

Reading to encounter is not less rigorous than reading to inform. It is simply aimed at a different destination — not your head alone, but your whole self. Come to the Word today willing to be surprised.