It's Only Been Three Years...

Back in December 2019, I was reading through the book of Isaiah in the Bible. It was frustrating because I knew much of what it covered, but I couldn’t follow the vast historical context. So I decided to purchase a chronological Bible. In January 2020, after I finally finished Isaiah, I started reading through the New Testament. Recently, after only three years, I finally finished.

I know what you’re thinking. Dude. You read slowly. It’s true. I do read slow, but that’s not why it took me so long. It’s because of the rules I’ve set up for myself. In my 20s, I wanted to read the Bible daily. It was a struggle. Fits and starts and starts and fits—fizzle outs. I would miss reading on Saturday, and a cascading failure would occur. Should I skip the reading from Saturday? Should I double up? Should I start with what I missed? Devotional books were not helpful as they always had the day listed. Don’t even get me started on the times I would miss a whole weekend. This led to point of no return events where I eventually just gave up on ever catching up. A few months later, I would try to start again and ultimately fail.

So, as I entered my thirties, I devised a rule set to address these issues effectively. The framework is as follows:

1. Just read the Bible. Don’t worry with devotional books.
2. Read through entire books of the Bible at a time.
3. Use the topic headings provided by the Bible for each day’s reading, whether it be   One verse or seventy-seven verses. These headings are somewhat arbitrary, but they help break the text into readable chunks.
4. Only read on weekdays. Skip holidays, vacation days, or any other days that break from everyday routine. This gave me the freedom to miss a day without destroying everything in the process.
5. In my forties, I added what I call “Threes,” where I write down three bullet points summarizing either the passage or my interpretation of what the passage is saying.  Again, I do this whether the passage is one verse or seventy. They both present interesting challenges. This item forces me to think through the text rather than just quickly read the passage and check it off my daily to-do list.

Once I developed this framework, I found I could stay consistent. In the last few decades, I can honestly say that I have only missed a few days. This framework has worked very well for me. I recognize that it may not be for everyone. I know some people like to read the entire Bible every six months or a year. That’s too fast for me. I’d rather spend my day thinking about a few verses than saying I traversed an Old Testament chapter, a New Testament chapter, a Psalms, and a chapter of Proverbs each day.

One last point I would like to bring up, it seems in vogue for people of my generation and younger to “deconstruct their faith” as they get older. This is a complete mystery to me. To me, reading more and more of the Bible as an adult only feeds my faith.  I only see how things fit together more and more. The Bible, taken as a whole, is one story. It’s not a bunch of random sayings and rules. Everything, in context, makes sense—especially in light of the whole.

What about you, dear reader? Have you desired to read the Bible daily and had problems? Did you find a solution? What has helped? What has not helped? What habits have you grown fond of concerning daily reading?

Now that I’ve completed my journey through the New Testament, I’ll be heading to the Old Testament. I’ll try to post about that journey in a decade or two when I’m done.