Pick Your Passage: Nose-picking and Bible reading

Not too long ago I got into a brief discussion with a friend when he suddenly spouted, 'Picking your nose and eating it is actually healthy. It can stop stomach ulcers and even HIV/AIDS'. To which I skeptically stared at him and he told me to, 'research it'.

So I did.

As a teacher, it was my job to ensure that the information I was giving my students was correct. It was also my job to teach them to research properly. I often spent a lot of time trawling the internet to preempt what my students may use as 'reliable information' for projects and also in the aftermath of submitting their work, I'd often spend considerable amounts of time checking plagiarism*. Yes, I was THAT bothered. Back to the present day.

In between potty trips, lunch prep, and tidying up I browsed page after page of possible sites which claimed, 'science says booger-eating and nose-picking are healthy' and 'why YOU should pick your nose and eat it'. There were articles from many major newspapers. Each one quoting a paper by Dr Scott Napper and Professor Friedrich Bischinger. So I did some further digging to find this original study. Guess what, there isn't one. And I'm not the only one who's done some investigating either. You can find what ABC-Media Watch had to show for their search here as well as (the shorter version from) Australia's Science Channel here.

Now I'm certain you're wondering why in the world I'm writing about nose picking. This whole experience made me realise that this same thing happens in Christianity. No, not nose-picking, although I'm sure we've taken a double glance at the uncle at the end of the aisle picking away during a somber, monotone rendition of 'It is well'**. I'm talking about taking what you hear from someone else, be it from the preacher in church, the Bible study leader or a devotional book or blog you're reading, and believing it without consulting the original source.

It's so easy to want the spark notes version of the Bible or turn to those punchy memory gems. I'm not saying they don't have a place in our lives, BUT if that's all we're taking in, well we simply don't know much. Ellen G. White herself wrote that we should, 'bring evidences, clear and plain, from the Word of God'.

I know on several occasions I've listened to a Christian speaker sharing on a given topic and quote Scripture to suit their point. But when I've gone back to that verse and read verses before and after it, or indeed understood the context of when and why it was said, I find it had no relation to what the speaker used it for.

As a meat-eating (shocker!) Adventist I adhere to the rule of 'clean' and 'unclean' meats. The kosher meats if you will. Peter's vision in Acts 10 is one passage I've heard used as evidence that all meats are fine to eat and that the 'clean' and 'unclean' meats are no longer applicable. If you read the passage alone, then yes, I can see how you would think that. But it is so important to study the Bible and understand context and in this case, keep reading.

The vision in fact had nothing to do with meat but rather with the gospel being open to everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. Peter explains this in the next chapter. But if you stop reading at the vision, you'll misinterpret the point.

I remember when I was a preteen a family friend from church made a joke about reading the Bible haphazardly. He said there's a danger in the 'open a random page and read a random line' method since you could end up reading, 'then he went away and hung himself' (Matthew 27:5) and then read, 'go and do the same' (Luke 10:37). NO! Don't do the same!! That's NOT AT ALL what was intended by that verse. Read what's before - it's Judas' actions after betraying Jesus and it's the story of the Good Samaritan.

That may be an extreme example, but you get the idea. We must read the Word of God for ourselves and we must become familiar with it. We should know it for ourselves. We can't take snippets that suit us and we can't take another person's word for it alone. It's not fact that picking your nose and eating it is healthy - just because the Daily Mail or The Sun (newspapers) said so. Just because Billy Graham or Ben Carson say so, doesn't make it so until you fact check for yourself IN THE BIBLE, not the commentary or devotional guide.

I hope that you're encourage to pick up and dust off your Bible today. If you're stuck on where to start, why not try the beginning? Or if you'd like a different approach you can try one of these reading plans:

- Chronological reading plan (as the events occurred)

- Historical reading plan (as the events were written)

- The Bible in Year (a passage of Old Testament and a passage of New Testament)

N.

*plagiarism is where someone takes words/work from someone else and claims it is their own without crediting the original creator.

This is VERY easy to spot when your Year 8 student who uses swear words in every verbal sentence and can't tell the difference between 'were' and 'wear' or writes 'should of' instead of 'should've' suddenly produces a perfectly punctuated and grammatically correct paragraph using words you're certain they don't know the meaning of.

** I LOVE the song 'It is well' but it must be sung well or else it's an easy one to turn into a droning.