For a jr. high boy, standing and reading scripture in front of a room full of adults and peers is sheer torture. Let alone when the pastor chooses an Old Testament passage filled with names ending with “iah” or foreign peoples ending with “ucites.” So my hint for the kids used to be: fake confidence. Say it like you mean it! (fist raised!) Then everyone in the audience doesn’t say, “it’s Jeb-UUU-site, dummy” but rather, “Oh, THAT’S how you say it.” Just watch. When some kid follows through on this, the adults nod in agreement. That’s right, kid.
Little did I know, I was offering as advice what is commonly practiced as religion.
In Isaiah 2 today, I read that a day is coming when “He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.” (v. 4-5ish. The Message has no clear markings)
On the contrary, people are prone to “make their own gods and worship what they make.” (v 9)
How often, when we don’t know what is true or right or good, we simply make it up and declare it as God’s.