House of Alcina

The Bible.

If you’d asked me when I was younger, I probably would’ve tried to come up with some clever, catchy, popular book that would make everybody think I was cool. But the truth is the book that changed my life the most is the Bible. I know it might be the cliché answer, but I have very deep reasons for that.

The other reason why I would’ve never said the Bible if I was younger is because I didn’t understand the Bible. I think there are a lot of adults that are still very intimidated by the Bible. The language is old. Some of the metaphors fly over your head. As a kid, and honestly even as a teenager, it felt less like a love letter and more like a theological textbook written in a dialect nobody speaks anymore.

But here’s what surprised me as getting back into my Bible as an adult: the Bible is not boring. Not even a little.

The stories are enormous. Action-packed, heartbreaking, scandalous, and redemptive. And what gets me every time is how deeply human the people in them are. The stubbornness. The promiscuity. The pride. The doubt. These aren’t ancient problems. They’re Tuesday problems. The same broken patterns that ran through the ancient world run straight through ours, and Scripture has a way of holding up a mirror you didn’t necessarily ask for.

And then there’s Jesus. What strikes me most is that He didn’t arrive threatening people. He didn’t rule through intimidation or fear. He healed people. He sat with them. He loved them with such radical sincerity that it made powerful people furious. And His entire message was almost disarmingly simple: I love you. Give me your heart. Follow me.

That was it. That was the whole thing.

Here we are 2,000 years later and people still hate Him for it. Which is actually its own kind of comfort, knowing that even a man who did nothing but love people wasn’t safe from being despised. If the world makes you feel small for your faith, you’re in pretty good company.

The world Jesus walked into wasn’t so different from ours. Broken systems. Corrupt leadership. People desperate for someone to make sense of the chaos. And He did, not through power or politics, but through presence. Through love. Through a message so simple it has spent two millennia being overcomplicated by people who just can’t believe it could really be that straightforward.

It can. It is.

And the miracles? Still happening. But here’s the thing people miss: they’re happening for those who believe in Him. I think a lot of the anger you see from people who reject God comes from never having experienced Him. And that makes sense, because you won’t. Submission is the most important part of seeking God. You can’t receive what you’re not willing to open your hands for.