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?  

A Saturday Peace

We use firewood to heat our home, and every morning I go out to the firewood shed to bring in firewood for the day.  I have to make several trips to bring in enough wood to heat the house for the next 24 hours (we burn 7 chords of wood per season).  When I'm bringing in those pieces of wood, I evaluate them to pick the right pieces at the right time.  For instance, I always try to grab wetter and more square shapes first to put on the bottom of the pile.  They make a steady base, and they'll dry out more before they get used.  Then I add the drier and possibly odder shapes near the top of the pile since they will be thrown into the fire sooner and they don't need to hold pieces above them.  

 There is one type of piece, however, that I avoid bringing in: the Saturday piece.  A Saturday piece is a problem piece.  It's too big or oddly shaped or wet to throw on the pile for a normal day.  I'm typically gone during the day on weekdays and I don't want to make my wife deal with the odd or inconvenient piece.  But on Saturdays I'm around and it's no big deal to wrestle with that piece on those days.  If it's particularly wet, I leave it right in front of the fire to dry it out, and if it's really big, I get the fire nice and hot, then make space for it.  The bottom line is that some wood is just going to be too much of a pain to deal with on an ordinary day and is best dealt with when I'll have time to address it without stress.  Do you see where I'm going with this?  It's not procrastination to identify a problem too gnarly to deal with right now and set it aside for a time when you know you can address it.  Procrastination is arriving on Saturday and wimping out and opting not to deal with those pieces when I know I can.  Knowing that I'll deal with those problems on the weekend gives me a Saturday peace all week long.