Three items tonight:
1) If Christ lives, why is it that so many Christians treat the Bible as his proxy? If we have access to the Divine, why this divination?
2) My friend Nathan Key told me a joke long ago called “Purple Spaghetti.” There are some versions on line, but none of them capture Nate’s sick 6th grade raconteur style. If you know this joke, I want to see your best attempt at it. The longer and more drawn-out, the better.
3) Dzanc has a new on-line journal up. Check out The Collagist. Gordon Lish is in the house.
Chris Cocca 
i’ll see what i can do to recall the majesty of that awful joke.
I remember, one time, I told it to my grandpa and the next year on my birthday he sent me purple spaghetti (dyed, of course) in an envelope!
on point one, i think that it is b/c we have very little practical understanding or pastoral teaching on the present work of the Holy Spirit in the world. to me that has everything to do with it. one book on this that i have loved is called Not the Religious Type by Dave Schmelzer. check it, yo.
-c.
on point 1: interesting question and observation. However, I’m afraid that for a lot of Christians, the Bible is adornment for the nightstand, and access to the Divine is haphazard. Certainly no Christian in fellowship with Christ would say that the word is any substitute for The Word.
on point 2: what an interesting juxtaposition the proxy Christ subject is with Purple Spaghetti. I remember when you came home with that stupid Nathan Key joke (Not that Nathan is stupid….I always thought he was brilliant!) As you went on and on with it, I tried to stay interested, enthusiastic, supportive of your obvious delight, but I really just wanted the joke to be over. The end was so unsatisfying. Maybe that’s how it is with Christians and the Bible. They’re laboring through the Purple Spaghetti and never quite getting to the Savior.
I’m not sure about your conclusion on pt 1. Is it more common for people to say “let’s listen to what God seems to be saying via our experience of him” or “well, what does the Bible say?”?