Finding New Life In The Scriptures

So, recently I posted on Facebook a paragraph or so about how to find interest the Bible. Here's what I posted:

You want a tragic romance? You want a story of love? You want a book that will break your heart? That will fill you up til you overflow? Forget Romeo and Juliet. That crap is child's play. Instead, read your Bible. The Bible is not some dusty history book or some fanciful fairy tale. Its not a collection of wise sayings or outdated social recommendations. The Bible is an epic love story of a loving God and his wayward lover. This is a story that will shatter you to pieces when you come to understand it. This is a story that will blow your mind. Because it's not over. God is romancing you. He is pursuing you. He is chasing after your heart, seeking an intimate committed romance with you. And you will never be satisfied, you will never quench your unending thirst, til you stop your futile running and drink deep of Him.

To be honest, though, I'd never actually tried reading the scriptures in that context. So after posting that paragraph, I wondered, "Does it really work? Could that mindset breathe new life into the Bible?"

I was kinda skeptical. You see, I've been trained very well in theology, the Bible, in sound Christian doctrine. So I'd come to a place where the Bible had become common place to me. To avoid redundancy, perhaps another excerpt from "The Darkness Diary" can best explain:

      March 25, 2016
...I've been listening to Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. It's a great thinking book. It really makes one ponder the philosophical questions that life brings. But I'm tired of thinking. I am exhilarated, because I can engage on an intellectual level with Card's logic and philosophy (even though I may not agree with it), but I need more than the intellectual. I need feeling. And not this feeling of loss, shadows, and pain. I want joy and peace and hope and life. I've been craving this for so long, and yet the one source I know to hold all the answers- the Bible- I shy away from. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm guessing that it may be because I feel like I know it all already. I know all the basic premises, dogma, doctrine, and theology of the Christian Faith. And no thought, fact, scripture, or proverb from the Bible is new to me. Again, I need to be engaged beyond the intellectual. 

 I need a the feeling and experience to make the intellectual knowledge practical. I need it to be experientialy relevant.

So I decided to test my idea. I picked up my Bible and decided to start at the Beginning. I wanted to read the story straight through from beginning to beginning and find out if this new viewpoint of the scriptures could change how I viewed them. (OK, that sounded really redundant, but I hope it made sense.)

And, to some degree at least, it has helped. They Bible is no longer dry to me. All my problems aren't fixed, I haven't met God in a new way, I don't have the satisfaction I am craving. My sadness and pain is still just as present and in no way is it diminished. My depression still kicks in all the time. My agonizing hungry has only increased in intensity. But the Bible now intrigues me, and the Scriptures have new life. I'm learning from them again. And that's more than I can say has happened in a long time.