Reading the Same River Twice: How Experience Changes Perspective

Robert Taylor

The river flows to the sea. But that’s not the end of the story.

Instead, the winds and sun evaporate the sea water, turning it into clouds. The clouds drift over land where rain pelts the earth. The runoff ambles to the river, which flows to the sea.

And the cycle continues.

Yet, it is a description of you and me. We give and get back.

This year, I am reading through the Bible again. I have lost count of the times I have done it. Instead, random thoughts on dog-eared legal pages stuck inside a Daily Bible tell that story.

It’s not like I don’t know the material. I know the story and the details. So I am not reading for information.

Instead, it is to glean a new perspective, and I always gain new viewpoints.

For instance:

When God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22, I noted: Does Abraham’s faith rest in Isaac’s life rather than God’s promise?

When Jacob gives the blessing to the 12 patriarchs, some are not flattering portraits. I wonder how the brothers took their blessings…anger, jealousy, or resignation.

In the ten plagues, God inflicts pain before death, but death is the most severe plague…and still is.

The insights grew from the crossroads of experience and age.

The philosopher Heraclitus observed:

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

Our current state believes we need information. I find I know far too much more than I do. I need reflection, steeping, and perspective.

Those come when you take the old story into an older mind and let it become fresh again.

If you want knowledge, read the Bible once. If you want depth, read it over and over again.

The river flows to the sea….and returns again.