BT/E #3

Questioning the Text:

Reading is not automatic. You can scan your eyes across a page 100 times or more and never really read. Even for someone with a photographic memory, there must be an engagement with the text. In other words, reading is more like conversation than we think. When we engage in conversation - responding, anticipating, reacting - we are more certain that we are understanding the person with whom we are speaking. And the same is true for reading. When we engage with the text, we are more like a good conversation partner - one who really wants to get at the heart of what the other person is saying.

How many times have you been frustrated by someone who thought they knew what you were saying or meaning but didn't really understand you at all? The more you tried to explain the more confusing the conversation became, because they thought that they already knew what you meant - or even what you were going to say! This is how reading can get if we let it. We can be the bad conversation partner who refuses to listen carefully because we are convinced that we already know what is being said - unless we engage with questions!

Asking questions of the text conveys a certain attitude that says, "I'm not sure I quite understand, but I would really like to. Could you please help me," which - by the way - is a very good prayer to keep going in the background as we read. Displaying this type of attitude leads to a better reading (a better conversation). Now, enough about disposition. What are some questions of the text?

1.) Where is this taking place, and what do I know about the place?
2.) Who is in the text at this point, and what do I know about them?
3.) What details are in the text (names of people, places, things), and why would they be here?
4.) Why is the text arranged in this way? Is there anything before or after this part of the text that sheds light here?
5.) When is this taking place? Is there a special occasion or time of day that is mentioned?
6.) What could have been said that wasn't?

Question 6 is the least important on most occasions, but it can be important at times. Otherwise, these questions are very basic, but they must be asked. Essentially, they all relate to the disposition I talked about above and, basically, they all ask this basic question: "Do I really understand __________?" Fill in the blank: a place, a term, a story, a concept. Ultimately, this question gets to the heart of it all and leads us to the most humbling and exciting question that we could ever use to fill the blank: "Do I really understand Jesus?"