What I Learned From An Uninspiring Book

I started to read a book that I thought I would never read in my life. The Bible always seemed like a very uninspiring book. But when I picked up a copy of The Student Bible, edited by Philip Yancey in the year 2001, it became my favourite book to read. I started to read the Bible as though it were a novel. And I enjoyed reading every bit of it. I made notes. I highlighted passages. I colour-coded my my Bible.

When I read Romans 7, I realized that Paul was speaking about a struggle that I was going through in my life. And when I read it, I said to myself, "Sam, this is your story that Paul has written about. This is your life. This book is real! This book is just the best thing I've ever read! And this is the answer to my life's problems." And that's when I started to truly believe in the Bible.

In 2004 my father passed away, as I was just completing my reading of the Bible. And this was a very difficult time in my life. I thought that it might destroy my faith as I had asked God to heal my father. But my father passed away. That should have destroyed my faith. But I was reading Job at that time. Job was one of the final books that I read in the Bible. And Job says at a certain point in that book, "Even though he slay me, yet will I hope in him." And those words stayed in my mind. Even though God may destroy me, I will still hope in him. And that made me believe in God. That made me believe at a time when belief was very difficult. That made me keep on trusting in God, when I didn't see any reason to trust him after what he did with my father. So that's how it all started. My faith really grew when my father died. Instead of abandoning my faith, I continued to believe in God.

- Samuel Godfrey George