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Many years ago as I was preparing for a week of camp (I was the counselor, not the camper), I decided to have the kiddos do an exercise which would get them to think about the origins of their own faith and how those origins might connect to their daily lives. I asked them to spend some time thinking about how they would rewrite the Bible if it could only contain elements from their own lives. How would they each communicate the central messages of their faith to others throughout the world across centuries? The bonus was that their "Bible" could take any or multiple forms, not just written. The discussion which came out of this was one of the best of summer, and in the years that followed I've found myself doing this exercise from time to time. It's sort of become like a way for me to see if and to what extent I had changed since the last time. So, here's a few things from my current list:

I would include the way that I feel when I eat my grandmother's cookies. I know, I know, this is so mundane and trite, but that doesn't make it any less true for me. Eating her food in general and cookies in particular makes me feel safe, taken care of, reassured and accepted. I think that's an essential part of Christianity, and those are certainly feelings that we could do with more of.

I would include a series of conversations that I had with a friend of mine from roughly September of 1998 to April of 1999. My friend was patient enough to work with me as I struggled through a series of questions about the nature of my faith in particular and religion in general. At each turn, he would press me to consider the intersection of faith and action. What is important to me about these conversations is not the conclusions that came out of them (if there were any) but the fact that they happened at all. They were a critical component for me developing an active faith as opposed to static beliefs. In large part due to these conversations I'm still engaged in conversations about the same set of questions.

Finally, I would include the movie "The Thin Red Line." Beyond the aesthetics, which are important, the movie introduces a large amount of skepticism and doubt into the role of God in this world. And, it's funny to see John Travolta in a mustache.

What goes in your Bible?