Read the Bible with… Justine Toh

Justine is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity.

Where do you live and go to church?

I live in Sydney’s inner west with my husband Vaughan and baby boy, Rhys and we call All Saints Petersham our church home.

Name a Bible character you resonate with and why.

Peter, because at my worst, I am prone to over-promising and under-delivering. Yikes. Good thing that that isn’t the last word on Peter – so there’s hope for me too!

What are you reading in the Bible at the moment?

Ecclesiastes. It’s my kind of mood at the moment.

What’s one thing from the Bible that’s stuck in your brain at the moment?

The different seasons of life, and the fact that God has made everything beautiful, appropriate, suitable for its time. It reminds me that change will come, it is always coming.

Name one part of the Bible you keep coming back to again and again and why.

The way Jesus says he will satisfy the thirst of the Samaritan woman at the well. All that restless longing and misplaced desire – she was on a quest for some kind of absolution. It prompted her to pursue several husbands. I only have one husband (and he’s proving more than enough for me to handle) but like that woman I have run after rival gods. The passage reminds me to thirst after the right things – because the right things will actually slake that thirst. D’uh.

What advice would you give someone struggling to read the Bible each day?

You’re pretty normal. But that’s no excuse. Find a friend and read it together.

If you were a monster what would be your defining feature?

My laugh. A friend said it’s like tinkling bells. If eyes of love can make someone more beautiful, then perhaps she has ears of love??

toh lg