(“Some Guy” sent me this guest post. That is literally his name. But despite his incredibly secrecy, he wrote a really, really funny post. I dug this and hope you do too.)
Growing up, I attended a small independent church and I went to a public school. I liked both of them, but the combination helped make me blissfully unaware of the larger trends in Christianity.
I was in for a rude awakening when I went from a Sunday school class of 5 or 6 high schoolers to a campus of about 2,000 Christians at college. I was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of people who were very spiritual. How did I know?
They all had life verses.
I had never heard of a life verse before. It became almost a default greeting my freshman year. When someone would meet you, he would ask your name and the follow-up question would sometimes be “What’s your life verse?” Sometimes it wasn’t a question – the other person might just volunteer a life verse and then there would be an uncomfortable pause when you knew you were supposed to respond in kind.
But what do you do when you don’t have your own life verse? How can you fit in?
1. Respond with “That is a great verse. I can see why you chose that one.”
2. Change the subject and ask “So, where are you from?” or “What’s your major?” (In a church setting, instead of a college setting, ask about last week’s sermon.)
3. Pretend you have a life verse, preferably one of the more popular ones (Proverbs 3:5-6, Philippians 4:13 or 19, etc.) so that you’ll blend into the crowd and no one will remember.
For those of you who are like I was and don’t know what a life verse is: it is a Bible verse that you choose as the most important Bible verse for your life. This is the verse that has significant meaning for you personally and will carry you through life’s journey.
Or something like that. I never quite caught on.
And then, also during my freshman year, there was a group of guys who found out they had the same life verse (in Ecclesiastes of all places) so they formed a band. Life verses are that powerful.
(They were a great band – shout out to Tree Climbers Guild)
Of course, being in college and finding out that having a life verse was The Spiritual Thing To Do gave me a lot of questions:
1. That sounds like an awfully big commitment. Do I get to date some verses first?
2. How do I know if it’s The One for me?
3. Is there a ceremony involved when I do pick a life verse? How do we make it legal?
4. What if the life verse doesn’t want me?
5. Can my parents arrange a life verse for me?
6. Can I still quote other verses after I have chosen a life verse?
7. Can I have more than one life verse?
Maybe if I had been asked for my favorite verse I could have responded a little better. But life verse? I was unprepared for that. So I stumbled through college without a life verse. I don’t know if anyone knew. Maybe I faked it well enough.
Partway through college, I figured that maybe I should be looking for a life verse. After considering some, I decided on Mark 12:30 (with 1 Peter 2:17 being a very close second place). But I never really committed to it. I made it the rest of the way through college without needing to officially declare a life verse, and the verse and I parted ways after graduation. Last I heard, it was chosen by a seminary student over in Grand Rapids.
Me? I’m still happily unattached. Free to quote whatever verses I want. Remember, there are plenty of fish in the sea. All Scripture is useful for training in righteousness, right? Shouldn’t we use the whole Bible?
Anyway, so what about you?
What’s your life verse?
And how or why did you get that one?
