It’s always hard to figure out which in a series of ideas should receive priority or emphasis. What should be included/what should be left out. Bible studies are especially hard, because there is simply so much depth and interconnection in God’s Word!
So I’ve made some progress in what is supposed to be a single session Bible study. I have a nice narrow topic handed to me, but I’m still going back and forth between priority or emphasis. I mean, I keep being tempted to think maybe the bigger neat-o points should be their own session in a multi-session study!
Probably I’m out of touch with my intended audience. I’m perfectly happy with strings of awesome interrelated ideas! Readers, however, may not agree. Readers might prefer clarity and more narrow moments of focus.
That may be my rub with writing. I love ideas and content! Structure and restrictions not so much. Likewise, I love words, literally and philosophically! But discerning for an audience is significantly harder.
Thankfully, I know my ultimate priority and emphasis is Jesus Christ, substitutionary atonement, and God fulfilling His Word in ways beyond our fallen expectations.
I suppose length will be my deciding factor regarding how much to include. Right now I’m writing it more stream of consciousness, but when I’ve gushed a little longer I’ll be able to go back, redo the intro, and tighten things up. Regretfully I’m one of those people who thinks, “Oh, well maybe this would be enough for a book!” even when it is remarkable silly to think so.
By the way, if I ever go into self-publishing, I might write some of the dumbest titles in the world that few people would ever want to read. Your latest hint about my topic can be this: if I were to write a multi-session study including it, I’d title it simply Misfortunes and the Bible. 🙂
But I’ll tell you this: my random, sometimes dark material would still rock my world! lol Priority or emphasis would consist in whatever I happen to think awesome at the time. Heh, maybe it’s best I work with publishers. 😉
I’ve had this exact same problem. (And I know many pastors struggle with it in sermon writing.) Many sections of Scripture are so packed full with goodies, it’s impossible to give them all the proper attention without losing the narrative thread.
In book or longer study format, that’s one of the advantages of having things like sidebars or perhaps a special feature page where a couple paragraphs are given to each topic in something like “Three More Points to Ponder.” You can still find use for points you had to remove from the main text for flow and clarity. Short of doing a whole section or mini-study on each topic, it at least introduces the conversations so readers can continue them on their own.