Tabbing the Bible?

So, I'm on the jet from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Seattle.  There is a vacant seat between my aisle seat and the woman sitting by the window.  She has utilized the seat as space to spread out her project.  I glanced over (the curse of curiosity I picked up while with Intelligence).  I notice a page of labels - MAR, LUK, PSA, GEN, etc.  What the hell?  I look to her lap and she is diligently tabbing her bible to make it easier to reference.  I always thought the bible was pretty easy to navigate.

I smiled to myself as I considered my issue with Christians that hold their bibles out in front of themselves like a weapon, pointing it at me as though a book of parables would protect them more than their lack of faith against my supposed words of heresy (How many heretics were murdered by the church for their beliefs and later proclaimed saints?  Hmmm...).  I wondered if this woman was tabbing hers for the purpose of study, or as preparation for a rapid fire assault on her definition of the godless heathen.  I likened the tabs to filing down the trigger action on a handgun or flipping the switch from semi-auto to full-auto fire mode.

When we landed she was still busy at the task, even as we taxied to the gate and everyone began retrieving their bags she was still busy tabbing away.  I wanted to tell her, oh so gently, that she really needed to get a life - but this probably was her life.  I wanted to tell her that what was in the book was phenomenal guidance, but she really needed to put the book down and live her faith in Christ.  I was reminded of the TV show Kung Fu.  I look at the bible as a gun in the lawless west; every cowboy carrying one, ready in an instant to pull it out for protection.  And there was our hero, armed only with his beliefs, his faith.  Ok, so he could kick everyone's collective butts with one arm behind his back while hopping on one foot singing Camptown Races (doo dah, doo dah).  I guess my point is he didn't need a weapon or a shield.  He lived his life and his beliefs.

I could have pointed out the obvious to this woman.  I could have pointed out the Table of Contents in the front of her bible, or that nothing is easy, but in today's "everything now" society it probably would have fallen on deaf ears.  We all need to learn to take some time to breathe.  I suppose it was a good thing that she didn't turn on her Kindle to access scripture, at least she was still utilizing a book.  I do not look forward to the future of compu-vangelists and compu-confessionals, compu-priests and ministers.  Heaven help us when we decline to the point of the compu-pope.  Of course, by then we will probably have a popette.  Technology presents a slippery slope for the faithful.  Is the internet a tool of evil, or is it the person using the tool?  Guns don't kill people...

The woman, this fellow traveler, was probably as sweet a person as she seemed with the few words we exchanged on the plane.  I was probably being overly sensitive and subtly unloading unfounded paranoia in my usual humorous, albeit knee-jerk reactive, way.  What?  Me?  Say it ain't so!

I write it all up to sitting in a sardine can while American Airlines dragged me all over the greater mid-west for eleven hours to get me home to Seattle.  It would make the best of us a bit cranky which probably explains the two Jack Daniels I had on that leg of the trip which also probably explains why she didn't speak much.

As I finish this post I remember I have to purchase some Big Tab dividers for the office.

God bless us all, and try not to take life to seriously.