Torah Club

I am going to take a minute to tell you about something that Garrett and I found a few weeks ago.  We have been searching the Scriptures largely on our own, with only a once-a-week sermon as a regular lesson.  And that's not bad, except that I didn't feel like we were doing a very good job of our private study.  Garrett and I have 2 different study styles, and we tried each other's patience a bit.

You see, Garrett is a feast and famine studier.  He finds something he wants to know, and it becomes top priority.  He doesn't need to eat or sleep or anything (perhaps I exaggerate a bit, but you get my meaning) during this time.  He goes deep into his research.  And then he doesn't need to research anything more until a new question presents itself in his brain.

I like small regular meals of study.  I want to read something and then walk away and have time to let it roll around in my thoughts before I return to it.  But I need a regular schedule so that I actually return to it.  Without that, I walk away, roll the thought around in my head, and then, whoops, it rolls right out of my head and I forget to follow up.  Ah-hem.  For all the years that I lived at home with my parents, the family gathered every night and read a chapter of the Bible together.  Because of that, I have been through the entire Bible multiple times -- just by steadily pursuing one chapter at a time every single night.  And that works really well for me.

That's not the only difference between Garrett and I.  I tend to quickly see the meaning, and sometimes an in-depth study guide feels to me like it is beating a dead horse ("yes, we already know it means this...do we have to ask the same question 15 times?").  For me, I take a big meaning and then walk away and quietly digest it.  But Garrett thrives in an in-depth study guide.  He takes it bite by bite, savoring the flavors.  It makes me think of eating a cracker.  I take the cracker, stuff the whole thing in my mouth, and walk away.  For me to keep sitting there, with my mouth packed full, while you try to keep handing me the exact same type of cracker over and over again just makes me want to choke.  But Garrett will take the cracker and nibble little tiny bites off of it, thoroughly chewing each piece before he takes the next bite.  When he gets up and walks away, he has completely finished the cracker.

Soooo....needless to say...we weren't working very effectively as a team.  Without a burning question inside of him, Garrett wasn't motivated for nightly study.  And when he did have a burning question, I didn't have the stamina to follow him into an 8-hour, who-needs-lunch-when-you-have-a-project type of study.  So we were studying separately...or sometimes stretching our patience and studying together.

A new friend invited us to Torah Club.  Garrett and I looked it up online and then decided not to go.  But then an old friend went to it, and she came back with a good report. Sooo...we went.

And it was absolutely amazing.  I don't know if all Torah Clubs are like this or if it is just this one.  But the people we met with were so wonderful.  I haven't felt so much at home anywhere since I moved to the Valley.  And the Bible study that we did together was living and vital and met me right where I was.  I was excited for each week's study.

They use a study guide that goes through the first 5 books of the Old Testament, based on the "Parshah" (the study portions of the Torah).  It doesn't divide the Bible by chapters but by easy-to-read story-based sections.  And the study guide has some questions and commentaries that fit with Garrett's study style, but it is in smaller chunks with more regularity to fit my study style.  Which means...(drumroll, please)...Garrett and I are studying together and absolutely loving it.

So I am happy beyond my ability to put into words.  We have some like-minded believers that are learning from us and who are teaching us at the same time.  We have regular study at home as a couple.  And we are digging even deeper into God's Word in our search for Truth.