If you’re not a great cook, there are two 20th century inventions that have probably positively impacted your life.
The first is the microwave. In 1945, Percy Spencer was working for a company called Raytheon. He noticed that while he was near a radar set, a candy bar melted in his pocket. The idea occurred to him that microwaves from the radar were responsible for the melted candy bar. To test his theory, he tried to cook popcorn and then eventually exploded an egg. With some modification, Raytheon filed a patent for the cooking process later that year.
The second is the slow cooker. Irving Naxon developed the “Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker” after his Jewish grandmother told him how her mother would cook a stew for several hours in an oven. The invention gained popularity in 1970 when it was reintroduced under the name “Crock-Pot” when, after many women began to work outside the home, it allowed them to start cooking dinner in the morning before they left for work.
It’s easy to cook in both the microwave and the slow cooker. The only difference between the two is time. Well, time and taste.
Because what you’ll find is that you can cook a steak in the microwave, but it won’t taste great. Neither will it be tender. But if you put the same piece of meat in a Crock-Pot, it’s going to come out with a ton of flavor and much easier to chew. Simmering, it seems, changes the composition. It just takes a little longer.
While almost every Christian would acknowledge that reading the Bible is important, most treat the Bible like a microwave. We want an immediate answer to some issue in our life or our world. Or we want to have an immediate boost of good vibes. Or we think that reading the Bible is like a rabbit’s foot—that by looking at a few verses we are motivating God to give us what we want.
We want what we want now. Immediately. Microwaved. But the Bible doesn’t work like that. It’s less like a microwave and more like a Crock-Pot:
How I love your instruction!
It is my meditation all day long (Psalm 119:97).
As Christians, we aren’t meant to only turn to the Bible when we need some kind of quick spiritual fix. Instead, we are meant to simmer in the Word. To have our lives marinated by the truth we find there. To have the composition of our hearts and minds reformed according to the Bible. And that takes time. It’s a slow-cooking process. It’s not just getting in a quick 10 minutes here and there, but instead reading. And reading again. Thinking. Praying. Slowly.
Take your time, Christian. Simmer in God’s Word. Don’t rush through the truth. Memorize it and bring it to mind over and over again. Make sure, as you can, that your heart and soul have time to cook.
For one resource that can help you and your group simmer in God’s Word, check out the Daily Discipleship Guide from Explore the Bible. The Daily Discipleship Guide will allow you and your group to have daily devotions from the same biblical passage you study each week in your group.
Michael Kelley lives in Nashville, TN, with his wife, Jana, and three children: Joshua (10), Andi (7), and Christian (5). He serves as Director of Groups Ministry for Lifeway Christian Resources. As a communicator, Michael speaks across the country at churches, conferences, and retreats and is the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God; Transformational Discipleship; and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life. Find him on Twitter:@_MichaelKelley.
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