By Jan Cheripko
Many times young people who are getting serious about trying to find out more about God’s will for them will ask me: “What books should I be reading?” I spent some time with the most recent grads going over things that have helped me in the past, and I would like to take this opportunity – once a month – to share some books that have helped and are helping me pursue God as I understand Him.
I remember when I first bumped into the idea of someone “telling” me what I should be reading. I was newly sober and was reading Geoffrey Monmouth’s A History of the Kings of England. It was far from light reading, and I was feeling pretty damn proud of myself for reading such an astute work. A woman named Meredith chided me: “That might be interesting, but it’s not going to get you sober,” I recall her saying. I was offended – “How dare anyone tell me what to read. They’re trying to brainwash me!”
Of course, she was right, and considering the filthiness of my brain at the time, it needed a good washing.
The “winners” said, “The number one thing to read is the “Big Book;” chapters one through five. Memorize it. Quote it. Use it.”
I followed that suggestion. And then another suggestion. I started to read the Twenty-Four-Hour-a-Day Book. Every morning. Without fail. I made an agreement with myself and others that I would stay true to this. I needed the discipline.
I started to read the Bible, because that’s what Bill Wilson said he did, and I started to read William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, because Bill Wilson said he did that, too.
So my first article about books will deal with the Bible and Varieties of Religious Experience.
If you think the Bible is hard, don’t try Varieties of Religious Experiences. I don’t know how Bill W. did it. I have a copy and I poke around in it if I’m interested in a particular topic or idea, but to read James’ work is way beyond me.
So, now back to the Bible.
It’s a challenge, but it can be done.
(I strongly suggest the old King James Version with the “thees” and “thous”, because it was written by some of the greatest writers of the English language and it best captures the poetry of the soul. The words of the Bible are meant to be poetic and to speak to the soul. They are not meant to be utilitarian, like a how-to book, nor to be dumbed down so that we can pretend that God requires little effort on our part to reach.)
I started reading from the beginning and worked toward the end, and that’s certainly one approach. Another, however, is this:
You have to read Genesis. It’s where the great story starts. And it is a great story! Jews, Christians, and Muslims all trace their origins back to the story of Abraham and Abraham’s miraculous epiphany: there is a God, He is one God, He is my God, and I have some kind of personal relationship with this God. When I trust in God and try to do His will, things seem to work out; and when I don’t, things get messed up pretty quickly.
While beginning to read Genesis, read the Psalms on a daily basis. Set yourself a discipline of a minimum of twenty lines per day. It’s not that hard to do. (For the graduates, you’re already bored anyway and have plenty of time on your hands.)
After Genesis, jump to the Book of Jonah. Here you will find the quintessential story (only four short chapters) of our lives.
God says I want you to go here and do this, and we say, no thank you, I’m heading in the opposite direction. Then we end up in the belly of a whale. Jonah’s prayer from the depths is one of the most heartfelt and beautiful in all the Bible. And the ending of Jonah (“and also much cattle.”) is humorous, perplexing, and very real.
Even before I converted (oh, how I detested the word converted) to A.A,. I always found personal meaning in the Book of Ecclesiastes. “Vanity of vanity, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. . . . I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.”
Whether Solomon or a host of Solomons wrote those words matters little to me. I knew when I first read them that whoever the writer was he (or she) spoke to me. Vanity means emptiness in this context, and vexation is confusion. By God, that was my life – emptiness and confusion! Read Ecclesiastes to see what the solution is.
Ecclesiastes leads me to The Book of John in the New Testament. Of all the Gospels, it is John that I most love. I have memorized the opening part of Chapter One, because for me the words best state my relationship with God as I understand Him. “In the beginning was the Word…” John wrote. As a writer, I have struggled mightily most of my adult life trying to find the “right” words.
There is only one.
Abraham knew it. Moses knew it. Mohammed knew it. Buddha knew it. Lao Tse knew it.
And John knew it: “…and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
This seems like a good place to stop for now.
To the many, many young people (and old) who profess to be spiritual but reject out of hand the idea of “religion” and so refuse to open up the Bible, I challenge you to find out first what it is that you are rejecting.
A dear friend of mine, who knew nothing of A.A., told me that he made his daughter go to Hebrew school because he wanted her to know what she was saying no to if she chose not to be a Jew when she was an adult.
Apparently he had read Ecclesiastes.
