Jacob Hatcher  

Community Columnist  

The truth of the matter is, I am a nerd. I know to the untrained eye I appear to be the definition of cool, but underneath this Fonzie veneer there is a bookworm like you wouldn’t believe. I suppose a 37 year old referencing Fonzie in 2023 is a give away, though. For years I had my nose stuck in thick theology books and tomes of ancient philosophy. I’ve been on an epic quest to find all of the answers to all of the questions.  

But there’s something about summer in the south that creates a shift in me. Something about the frogs and crickets singing changes me. Maybe the humidity brings out more of the redneck in me. Maybe the heat makes it too hard to think too much. Whatever the reason, each summer I find myself setting aside the complexity and relishing in the simplicity of our faith.  

I put the books away and pull down old loved ones’ bibles. I flip through the pages and read the margin notes they left like I’m reading someone’s diary; I hold sheets of notebook paper where my Papa was writing out parallels he found between various verses and imagine him sitting in the living room under a dim light early in the morning.  

It’s so easy to get trapped in figuring out the doctrines and become legalistic about the theological interpretations we hold onto. In those moments it helps to look at those before us with simpler faiths and see how peacefully they followed Jesus. Sure, there are certified theologians among my ancestors, but the vast majority of them were simple farmers with simple, even if robust, understandings of scripture.   

Yesterday I got to work early and sat in my truck listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford sing hymns. I held a tiny Bible in my hand and read without thinking too much. I just let the music and the words wash over me. What I found is that in the midst of the complicated, scary things we face in the world today, “Just a little talk with Jesus makes me whole.”