Why I Try to Read the Bible Everyday.

What if the guy who invented atoms pulled you aside and said, "Hey, I want to tell you a secret."  Would you listen?  I'm not talking about the person who DISCOVERED atoms, but the one who CREATED them.  All of them.  What if he said, "I want to explain how things work, why people do what they do."  I don't know about you, but I would be all ears.  

The way I see it, that's just what the Bible is.  It's the mysterious book that explains how things like peace and justice and mercy work, and why people lie and love and sacrifice.  The more I read it, the more questions I have, but the more I learn.  It is a VERY curious work with many crevices that I missed on my first couple readings.  And I'm sure I'll have more questions every time I read it again.  I try to read it every day because it grounds me in the most important reality:  God is the author of my life and the world I live in.  If I can start there, I'm already ahead for the day.  

So, if it's that good, why would I ever miss it?  'Cause I'm human.  I am a mess like everyone else and I get sick and I think I'm too busy and I make mistakes.  When I get away from reading the Word of God on a regular basis, I become acclimatized to living without it, which is dangerous.  But thankfully, He brings something across my path that brings me back and I get in the flow again.  I read, I learn, I live, and I fail. 

Curious about reading the bible?  Try this recipe: 

1. Get a Bible at any book store or from your grandma or from your local church.  Don't worry about what translation it is, just get one that you can read.  
2. Get a bookmark.  
3. Ask God to teach you through his Word.  
4. Start reading.  
5. When you are done reading, insert the bookmark there.  
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you complete the book.  

It's kind of like reading any other book.  

Have you read any of the Bible?  What did you learn?  What did you like about it?  What did you not like?  Do you have questions?  What would you tell someone that is intimidated by the prospect of reading it?  

The Nightmare of Living the Dream

     I used to dream of something going wrong that would force me to "live the dream", but now I'm living it and the pressure is on.

A few years ago I just worked for a boss.  I just had a job.  I flew around the country and occasionally overseas to sell expensive enterprise software to massive corporations.  I had 5 people that worked directly for me and a boss above me.  It was great, and I loved a lot of things about it, but I constantly dreamed of breaking free.  I would be riding my motorcycle home from my office, and think to myself, What if I got in a terrible accident and got paralyzed?

I reasoned that then I would have to quit my job and be "forced" to work on writing and marketing my book.  Plus, I'd have the added benefit of people feeling bad for me, which would give my book a nice PR boost.  I imagined the newspaper article about the guy who got in the motorcycle accident who was fighting for his family and pressing forward on his book despite circumstances stacked against him.  Sounds good doesn't it?

Well, then my company sold, and I earned a nice bonus equivalent to about one year's salary.  Not a huge cushion, not the big IPO payout you hear about, but it was enough to open the door for an opportunity.  I quit my job so that I could "live the dream" and focus on my book full time.

Wahoo!  Freedom!  Oh, snap....  Now what do I do?

The fact is that I knew exactly what to do.  I'd been working on my book for 5 years, and I had a very complete marketing plan and long lists of ToDos.  But there was soooo much to do that it was overwhelming, and I didn't have a boss to prioritize it for me or even a peer with whom I could share challenges and opportunities.  It was all me.  Turns out there's a lot of responsibility in living the dream (which makes me think about all the "Freedom Ain't Free" bumper stickers, but that's another topic....).  The good news was that I didn't have to get paralyzed to "live the dream", but the reality news was, there was a lot of hard work ahead!