So normally we don’t send out an extra issue mid-week, but these are tough times so we thought we’d send out an archived essay from last year. For our paid subscribers, this bonus issue is just that, you’ll still receive your weekly email this Friday. For our free subscribers, you’ll hear from us again at the end of December— unless you choose to upgrade your subscription and join the Storied fam. 🤓 And in the spirit of BONUS content, we’re knocking 20% off the subscription price which makes it’s only $4/mo. (YAY!)
Happy Tuesday!
By Chris Llewellyn
The call centre had a dreary aesthetic that made me feel as worn out as the threadbare carpet.
“Hi! You’re speaking to Chris from bank account servicing. How can I help you today?” This was my battle cry from nine to five, Monday to Friday, in my late teens.
My job was mind-numbing in its simplicity: answer the phone politely, listen to whatever banal question the customer posed and then flip through the grubby, laminated handbook and read out the appropriate response. Repeat until your soul melts into a puddle of boredom.
This tedious season of my work life happened to coincide with me becoming a Christian. I was overly enthusiastic in those early days, often arriving at work in T-shirts emblazoned with eye-roll-inducing faith-based puns. Between calls I would ostentatiously read my giant leather-bound Bible. (If you’re wondering, no – I was not popular.)
Looking back, I now see that confusion was inevitable. With two sacred texts sitting side by side on my desk – the Holy Bible and the revered Halifax Bank of Scotland handbook– I began to believe that they basically performed the same function in my life. When I got stuck on a question about someone’s interest on their overdraft I would crack open the company handbook and it would provide me with a crystal-clear, instant response. I came to expect the same thing of the Bible. Should I attend my gay friend’s wedding? Should I ask the cute girl at the desk opposite for her number? Who should I vote for? No problem, please hold...
Approaching the Bible this way was frustrating. Instead of tidily arranged and relevant answers, I found weird poems, stories of ancient civilisations at war and obscure prophetic dreams and visions. There was even some sacred erotica thrown in there for good measure.
Even the portions that were specifically in the category of ‘law’ or ‘teaching’ seemed too far removed from my beige-carpeted context to be easily applied. The commandment not to “boil a kid in its mother’s milk” (Exodus 23:19, NRSV) was one I could easily keep, but made some wild assumptions about my access to goats.
This was my early introduction to the difficult truth that, while the Bible does give us some direct answers, it often seems to throw twice as many questions right back at us. The Bible doesn’t perform well as an instruction manual because it isn’t one. It’s a diverse library of beautiful, ancient works written across several languages, cultures and genres, that introduces us to Jesus – the word himself.
While it was initially disappointing and difficult for me to accept, this beguiling complexity is precisely what now stokes my love affair with the Bible. I came to scripture looking for clarity, and God gave me something better: wonder. Instead of a faceless interaction with a black and white text, he gave me an eternity’s worth of questions to passionately discuss with him.
In all my time answering calls at Halifax, I don’t recall the handbook ever challenging me. It never required me to intensely reflect on its contents or provoke me to angrily disagree with something it said. It just spoon-fed me easy answers.
And I’m pretty sure that’s why, on my last day of work, I dumped its bloated plastic pages unceremoniously into the shredder, but the Bible remains on my shelf to this day.
The Incredible Powers of Going on a Morning Walk by Stephen Hopper (Medium) — Unlike Chris, I’m not motivated by the endorphin rush of a work out. In the midst of stressful, WFH life with a toddler, spending my allotted free time busting a gut in the backyard churning out burpees is the last thing I want to do. But I’ve started walking every morning after a cup of coffee and it’s really had a profound impact on my mental health and overall sense of well-being. I’m not talking about a 20 minute stroll to the end of the road. I’m talking about going on a hour-long meditative, purposeful walk where I think about nothing, or everything, or pray or sometimes listen to a podcast. But I find the silence the most restorative. Give it a try!
How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That's Great News by Peter Enns — If you enjoyed Chris’ essay above, then you will LOVE this book by Peter Enns. Touching on many of the same topics (but with much more scholarly insight!) Enns gave us fresh eyes for reading one of the most familiar texts.
Rewatching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy— but fast fowarding most of the Frodo-moaning-across-Mordor bits haha. It had been a few years since watching this series for us and it’s been really fun to have something specifically planned out in advance to watch together after Danny goes to bed. We make an event out of it, light a fire, make sure everyone has a cup of tea and snuggle in and watch. It’s been really fun.
Primally Pure #SPONSORED — Specifically we love the deodorant from this company, but everything is actually really good. We’ve both been using Primally Pure products on ourselves and Danny for the last few years and just think they make incredible, CLEAN beauty and body products. They have a men’s and baby line of products and you can get a discount on your purchase today by using the code GABLLEWELLYN
Our October mixtape is live and we hope you’ve been enjoying it! It features songs by Noah Gunderson, Fleurie, Jospeh, Bombay Bicycle Club and more. LISTEN HERE.
Thank you for the mid-week pick-me-up!
This idea of the Bible as a literal manual is a tad to literal nowadays. I found a great podcast by The Bible Project in which they address and explain the laws of the Torah. Very fun, but then I am a sucker for Biblical history 🤓
If you want to reuse any more old ones in essays in the future... I’m a big fan of recycling! Also I am LOVIN’ the October Mixtape, by the way! It’s a perfect accompaniment to my evening walks!