In 2013, two of my best friends from college and I embarked
on a mission to read through the entire Bible for the whole year. A lot of cool
things happened at that time, including my getting saved, getting baptized,
becoming a member of the church I was attending, and being a leader of a Bible
study/prayer group.
Well, we are doing it again. I’ve enlisted some help from
Biblegateway.com this time, where they will send me an email reminder, with a
link that will take me directly to the current day’s reading. A lot has changed
since the last time I did this, much of which I’ve covered across various blog
posts over the last few years.
A few lessons I’m hoping to retain this time:
- Cultivate a habit of Bible reading in my life
- Progress, not perfection
- Don’t merely read; also pray
- Writing and processing is good, but the focus needs to be more on what I take in (the Bible passages) more than what I put out (my reactions/reflections/thoughts/opinions/etc)
Briefly, after I finished reading through the Bible from front
to back, I didn’t pick it up again for at least two years. One thing I noticed,
and now realize it as a direct result of suddenly stopping getting into God’s
word, is that all the prophetic words I received from different people at
church (one of the other cool things that happened that year) suddenly stopped.
I remember going to Friday night worship services, where prophetic ministry
time also occurs, hoping time after time for more prophetic revelation for my
life. Whereas once upon a time I was receiving all the time, it suddenly stopped.
Dried up. Over the next two years, spiritually, I felt like I was in a desert,
and at the time I could not figure out why.
I realize two things: 1.) I did feel burnt out from reading
every day, but also 2.) I had treated this as an intellectual project with a
finite end, as well as an endeavor where at the end I could say “I accomplished
it!” (like mountain climbers feel when they’ve reached the summit at Mount Everest
or any other significant mountain). While I may have heard it, it didn’t still
quite click that reading the Bible was any different from reading any other
book. It’s not “once you’re done, you can say you’ve read it and cross it off
your bucket list”; instead, Bible reading is a daily habit, and in fact a key
part of a very important relationship. But it’s taken me years to realize that,
and even now, I still struggle to walk out the commitment of reading the Bible every
day, long term. (I’m doing better than I did even just a couple years ago, but
the goal is to continue improving the habit.)
While I don’t believe it’s wrong to undertake a project, push toward its completion, and enjoy the satisfaction that accompanies completion, I need to remember that Bible reading is meant, a life-long habit. I do intend to succeed at reading the entire Bible this year, but I also need to be sure that I maintain a regular Bible-time habit, and not stop reading for another two years.