December 17. Brian Hardin. Brian founded the Daily Audio Bible podcast, which has been accessed 40 million times, and Four Winds Mission—“an Artistic, Socially Conscious, Community of Faith” in Tennessee. He is an accomplished record producer, a filmmaker, a photographer, a narrator, and a skillful graphic designer.
Zondervan asked Brian to write a book for adults about the Bible, and on this date in 2011, Brian published Passages: How Reading the Bible in a Year Will Change Everything For You.
But Brian has had his hard times, too. About that time, he said, “… I was raised a Christian and even grew up a pastor’s son, but after 20 years in the music business, I was living a comfortable, semi-agnostic life. I didn’t really know God. …” That’s where today’s story starts.
Religion can harden a man, but relationship with God transforms him.
“God, if you’ll speak to me for yourself, I’m listening,” prayed Brian. The house was still, and he settled into the couch that evening. With his family out of town, he sat alone with his thoughts—and an uncomfortable tension that had been growing in his heart toward God.
He lifted one of several family Bibles from the coffee table in front of him and slowly flipped through the pages. Hardin wrestled with the awareness that he had never actually read the entire book from cover to cover.
He leaned back on the couch, and suddenly realized that everything he had ever learned about God, his entire life of faith, had been second-hand.
As a devout believer for most of his life, church had been at the center of his life and his family. He had dedicated himself to learning about God. But always through someone else’s interpretation. In that quiet moment, he recognized that he was familiar with bits and pieces of the Bible, he was living the life of what some people thought of as a “good Christian,” but his heart still ached for something more.
Is this all there is to being a Christian? If so, I’m not sure I can do this for the rest of my life.
He lifted his eyes from the Bible and looked around the living room. Pictures of his beautiful wife and family caught his attention. How could he lead the family God had trusted him with into an authentic Christian faith if he didn’t know the God of the Bible for himself?
And how could he get to know God for himself in a more meaningful way? In frustration, he closed his eyes.
“God, if you’re going to speak for yourself through your Word, I’ll read the whole Bible,” Brian prayed.
Then he opened his eyes, opened his heart, and opened his Bible to the very first page. Genesis Chapter One. The first three words were “In the beginning.”
Those three words felt like a prophesy. Like a new beginning for Brian. He had read these words before, but tonight they landed differently in his heart. This time he wasn’t reading to get to know the Bible. He was reading the Bible to get to know God.
In that moment, something changed for Brian. He realized that God wanted to reveal Himself through the Bible, that God wanted to build a relationship with him through His Word, and that God had given us the Bible to get to know Him.
“The more I learned God’s Word, the more I came to understand that knowing the Bible, becoming a theologian, wasn’t the ultimate goal in life, it was getting to know the God of the Bible through knowing His Word.”
“Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word. I am but a pilgrim here on earth: How I need a map—and your commands are my chart and guide. I long for your instructions more than I can tell” (Psalm 119:18–19 TLB).
Today as you’ve heard this story, are you like Brian, living on a second-hand relationship with God? If you are, it’s not yours; take a step today and make it your relationship.
Do you see any signs of anxiety in your life? If so, what is the next step in dealing with it?
Religion can harden a man, but relationship with God transforms him.
Based on an interview with Brian Hardin, 2019.
Story read by Chuck Stecker
Story written by John Mandeville, https://www.johnmandeville.com/