Worth Revisiting (Friday Devotional)

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

- Hebrews 4:12

Like millions of people around the world, I spent hours of my free time the last month watching ESPN’s 10-part documentary The Last Dance, which told the story of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls through the lens of their final championship season together. While I have no personal memories of the Bulls’ glory days (I was 1 year old when they won their first championship and 8 when they won their sixth), watching the documentary was still largely an exercise in nostalgia, a chance to re-watch highlights I hadn’t seen in a while.

But to my delight, The Last Dance not only tread familiar ground, it also showed me things I’d never seen and taught me things I’d never learned. I knew Dennis Rodman’s reputation as a hard worker on the court and a partier off the court, but I never knew what teammates and coaches thought about him until watching their interviews. I knew Scottie Pippen was an underappreciated sidekick to His Airness for most of his career, but I didn’t realize how underpaid he was in comparison to his peers. I knew Michael Jordan was the most famous athlete in the world at his peak, but I didn’t realize what all that entailed until I saw it on camera. Returning to these familiar figures with fresh eyes gave me new perspective on what to think about them.

We learn new things when we revisit even the most well-worn stories, and if that applies to old basketball teams, it’s certainly true of the Bible. For those who have been reading Scripture for many years, certain passages may be so recurrent after countless Bible studies, wedding and funeral readings, and sermons that you assume there’s nothing left for God to teach you through them.

But as Hebrews 4:12 reminds us, God’s Word is “alive and active.” The Holy Spirit has a way of lifting even the most familiar words off the page and into your heart, of transforming stale explanations from yesterday into fresh power for today. So I encourage you to think about a part of the Bible you think you’ve got down cold and then give it another look today with an open mind and a humble heart—because no matter how much time you’ve spent in it, God’s Word is always worth revisiting.