Serving Bread

Resolutions are difficult to keep. If you are a gambler, odds are in your favor were you to wage a bet that I would not keep my New Year’s resolutions. This past year, I had a few resolutions. One of them was to lose some weight, which I did when I was on a diet for the first quarter of the year, but my lax eating habits returned most (but I’m glad to say that not all) of the weight that I had initially lost. (By the way, I’m back on the diet)

Another resolution I made for 2008 was to read through the Bible in one year. Today, I finished reading Malachi 4 and Revelation 22. With this reading, I believe that I have now read through the Bible five times—1. Eleven years ago (1997) as a college student; 2. Newly married (2002) and upon a challenge from a Seminary Professor; 3. In chronological order (2003); 4. Using a three year plan (2004-2006); 5. As a parent of two young children (2008).

Reading through every book of the Bible is far from spiritual and can feel mostly burdensome. The Bible is full of stories and narratives that seemingly have no impact on my life apart from being able to answer some crossword puzzle clues (35 Down: Book after Amos). Some of the stories are repetitive (the Gospels, some of Paul’s Letters, and the “History” books that are found in the Old Testament to name a few), and the imagery feels foreign to a 21st century reader.

So why do I enjoy reading through the Bible? Why read it cover to cover instead of just choosing the relevant goodies?

First, here are the things that reading through the Bible has not and does not do for me:

1. It doesn’t enhance my faith. I don’t feel any more faithful or spiritual because of what I have accomplished.
2. It doesn’t make me smarter. Most of the stuff I read I don’t really retain.
3. It doesn’t improve my character. My flaws are still there.
4. It doesn’t make me more sensitive to God’s voice. In most of my readings, I miss how God may be speaking to me through the passage.

So what does it do for me? Here is why I have and will at some point in the future (but not in 2009) read it through:

1. The more I read the Bible, the more I realize how unfamiliar I am with it. New stories and nuances catch my attention. I begin to appreciate the courage of some of the forgotten heroes, and the “humanity” of some of the more famous ones.
2. The more I read the Bible, the more I appreciate the Word of God. I love the description in Psalm 1 (which remains as one of my core/life Psalms): The blessed delight in the law of God. The more I read it, the more I find myself delighting in it.
3. Reading the Bible cover to cover helps me see a bigger picture. I see the hand of God working in history. The more I read it, the more I see themes emerge that paint a fuller picture of God. I would say that these personal readings have done more to unify the Bible for me than any Seminary course or preacher. The simple act of daily reading through the book has blurred the lines between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
4. Reading the Bible cover to cover puts me at the mercy of God. Rather than picking and choosing passages that I think I need to read and hear, I go through a regiment that is much more objective.

If you have never read through the Bible in a year (or haven’t done so in a few years), consider this post as a challenge to take that up for 2009. You can download the schedule I used for 2008. You will be committing to read about three and a half chapters a day or about 15 minutes. This time next year, you will have read the entire book and you will be glad that if you were to ever meet Nahum in the after-life, you can tell him that you read his book.