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Author and editor A. J. Jacobs calls himself the “human guinea pig.”  Some of his experiments have been: spending a year reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in an effort to become the smartest person, hiring a team of people in India to live his life for him (answer his e-mails, talk to his wife, etc.), and my favorite, live one year Biblically.  As a follow up to that year, he wrote the book “The Year of Living Biblically.”  Jacobs, an agnostic, grew up in a secular home and believed that religion would disappear as society became more enlightened and moved beyond it. When this did not happen he decided to take the year and follow every Biblical command as literally as possible: “to obey the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love my neighbor. To tithe my income. But also to abide by the oft-neglected rules: To avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers. To stone adulterers. And, naturally, to leave the edges of my beard unshaven.” That is, to follow the Bible without “picking and choosing.” Some may respond to the idiocy of this and/or seek to explain why this isn’t necessary but his reasoning is very compelling: “I wouldn’t just be studying religion. I’d be living it.” 
Reading this, it suddenly made so much sense. Our over-analytical approach says, I need to be saturated with evidence before I even feel like considering action.  For Jacobs, he pulled out all the stops, believing the best experience would be the experience and not the know-how.  He ends his introduction in the book with the line “I didn’t expect to, as the Psalmist says, Take refuge in the Bible and rejoice in it.” 

In the end, this is the only way that makes sense to me –to find the Bible (God’s Word) as a refuge, and rejoice in it; but it will take willingness to live like Ruth – a radical embrace.

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