The Greatest Story Ever Told
I was listening to the tapes from "Family Camp", which I didn't go to this year, but a lot of people from my church did, and in one of the messages the speaker mentioned reading through the Bible in 30 days and how it had changed him, as well as others he knew who had done it. He mentioned that for him it meant reading something like 48 pages in somewhere about 2 hours per day. Not a terribly insurmountable goal, I thought to myself. Hmmmmm....maybe I'll try it - not so I can say I read through the Bible in 30 days. That would be kind of meaningless. I happen to be a "big picture" kind of person, and so it intrigued me to consider how my view of God might change if I could see the whole scope of history from creation to consummation in that short of a time span.
So I started out today. In my Bible, reading the entire book in 30 days amounts to about 35 pages for a total of 1044. BUT as I was beginning to read page 1, I started to think about all the times as a kid that I had read entire books of 1,000 pages or more - think the Hobbit and LOTR series - multiple times in no more than a day or two. Nothing else got done, of course, and I often read way into the wee hours of the morning in order to finish a book before going to sleep, but once I started a good book, I seldom put it down for any but the most demanding tasks. I wouldn't even put it down to go to the bathroom (learned how to zip my pants with one hand) or go to school (I was quite proficient at reading while walking.).
What if . . . .
What if I set out to read the Bible in that same spirit - as a book that was so good and so much to be devoured in one sitting if possible - that only the most pressing necessities could tear me away from it. Hmmmm . . . .
Of course, I'm no longer a kid, and there are things like laundry and work, and such that won't be put off, so I kind of doubt that I would have 48 uninterrupted hours to finish the entire 1044 pages, but we'll see how it turns out. Not so I can say "I read the whole Bible in x number of days!" but so I can read the greatest story ever told.
So I started out today. In my Bible, reading the entire book in 30 days amounts to about 35 pages for a total of 1044. BUT as I was beginning to read page 1, I started to think about all the times as a kid that I had read entire books of 1,000 pages or more - think the Hobbit and LOTR series - multiple times in no more than a day or two. Nothing else got done, of course, and I often read way into the wee hours of the morning in order to finish a book before going to sleep, but once I started a good book, I seldom put it down for any but the most demanding tasks. I wouldn't even put it down to go to the bathroom (learned how to zip my pants with one hand) or go to school (I was quite proficient at reading while walking.).
What if . . . .
What if I set out to read the Bible in that same spirit - as a book that was so good and so much to be devoured in one sitting if possible - that only the most pressing necessities could tear me away from it. Hmmmm . . . .
Of course, I'm no longer a kid, and there are things like laundry and work, and such that won't be put off, so I kind of doubt that I would have 48 uninterrupted hours to finish the entire 1044 pages, but we'll see how it turns out. Not so I can say "I read the whole Bible in x number of days!" but so I can read the greatest story ever told.
posted by bullwinkl at 7:25 PM
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