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Tom Gilson is a senior editor with The Stream and author of six books, including Too Good to be False: How Jesus’ Incomparable Character Reveals His Reality and A Christian Mind: Thoughts on Life and Truth in Jesus Christ. He has more than 1,000 published articles to his credit, in addition to his top-ranked Thinking Christian blog, founded in 2004.

It was without doubt the stupidest thought that has passed through my mind my whole life long. I was in my early 20s. I’d been a Christ-follower for a couple of years, and in that time I’d read through the entire Bible at least once, and (if I recall correctly) the New Testament more than once. I saw my Bible sitting on my bedside table, and I thought, “I know what’s in there. Why do I need to read any of it over again?”

I haven’t thought anything quite that dumb since then. Not about the Bible, not about anything at all. It was my world-record stupidest thought about anything. At least I didn’t cling to it. Soon enough I got back to reading the Word.

Too Used To It?

I grew up in a church-going home, so I read the Bible some as a pre-teen and teenager, but I had no living relationship with Christ until I came to faith at age 18, late in the evening one January night. Everything changed. The next morning — pardon the cliche, but it’s true and there’s no other way to say it — the grass was greener and the sky was bluer. I felt freedom I’d never felt before. I knew with total confidence that I was forgiven and living a new life. Reading Scripture turned suddenly into an almost fiery experience of discovery and joy.

I wonder: Is it possible the grass is still greener than before, and the sky still bluer? It could be. Maybe I’ve gotten used to it, the way I’ve sometimes gotten used to the Bible, even to the point of wondering how much I needed it. Thankfully I kept on reading it. I’d heard the value of spiritual disciplines, and I’d seen that particular discipline lived out by my good friend and roommate John. I think sometimes God takes the feeling away for a season so we’ll learn to pursue Him, not the feelings.

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The best surprises come from the life of Jesus, though. He’s an unexpected leader, for one thing. Would you want a boss who was always right, who never asked your opinion except to explain how you were wrong, whose approach was, “It’s my way or the highway”? You might if he really was right every time, but even that could prove stifling. I’ve studied enough leadership literature to know that’s “not the way to lead,” and it’s “guaranteed to fail.”

With billions of followers thousands of years later, you can’t exactly call Jesus’ leadership a failure! Could it be that He’s the only Person who ever really had that much genuine authority? That He was right when He said His way was the only way? That His love was (and is) great enough to break the “leadership rules”? It must be so — it’s the only way His movement even makes sense.

Read more her: The Stupidest Thing I’ve Ever Thought – The Stream

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