Reason #570
Today was just a Monday. That's it. Nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. It was hot, it was long, it was busy, and it was routine. A day like pretty much every other day. I had such a good weekend that I had a really hard time going back to work today. Even though every weekend has the same number of hours, this one seemed to last longer - in a good way. It's kind of sad to live for the weekends, isn't it? But that's what I find myself doing. Counting down the time until 5:00PM on Friday so that I can enjoy two days off.
After reading Radical, Aaron and I were really challenged to make some life changes. Not that we've been doing things bad or wrong, for that matter. We've just not really lived our life differently, and we've definitely not lived radically. Our day to day looks pretty much the same as everyone else's day. We get up, go to work, take a lunch break, go back to work, come home, eat dinner, and do random things until it's time to go to bed. We found that we are creatures of habit. We talk about making small changes to our day, but we don't. We talk about how we need to eat healthier. We talk about how we need to be more active and work out. We talk about how we need to get this or that in order. We find ourselves always saying we will do one thing, and then we look back to realize that we never did anything. Not that we don't care, not that we don't have good intention, we just fall into routine and monotony so easily that the days pass by without us realizing it.
I think it's easy to do that in life. And maybe, like me, after a while you get a little discouraged. Because you look back and you see that you've done nothing. You really haven't even tried, you've just talked about it. Well, one of the things we were challenged with was to read the bible through in a year. This is one of those very things we have talked about numerous times yet have made little to no effort to actually do it. I love to read, I really do. And I go through spurts where I will read and read and read, and then I'll have a dry spell. There are plenty of days I'd love to just lay and bed and read, and before Aaron and I got married, there were plenty of Saturdays I did exactly that. The reason I love books is because you can get lost in them. For just a little bit of time, you get to live in someone else's world, doing something you'd probably never do. Live in a place you'd never get to live. Have an insider's view on a life that is totally different than yours. But after you've read a book once, there's really no need to go back and read it again. I, myself, haven't done that. If I know the complete story line of the book, I don't bother reading it. If I've seen the movie, I don't bother reading it, either. Because nothing changes on those pages. The plot is still the same, the characters are still the same, and the ending... the same. Why bother reading something you already know when you could move on to something that's new and exciting to you?
I don't know about you, but I think we look at the bible like this. We feel like we already know it. We know so many of its stories, we know how it ends, we know the main characters, and we know the story line. So why do we need to read it more than once? We've read it before. Maybe not the whole thing, but we've read enough of it to get by. Enough of it so that we feel like we're doing a pretty good job. Well, I've gone through seasons, like most of us have, where I've craved the word. Seasons where I searched scripture and read it every single day. And I've had seasons where I only opened my bible on Sundays. Seasons where I carried it around with me, but I didn't really read it. And I've had those seasons where I gave it a valiant effort yet found myself getting distracted or tired and easily giving up. Yet even though the words of scripture never change, even though the story will forever remain the same, I'm amazed that when we read God's word with an honest and open heart, a heart that years to hear Him, to learn about Him, and to grow, we can read the same thing twice and hear multiple different things. I'm amazed at how the Spirit will reveal new things to us the more we re-read those ancient words. And the more we read it, the more we get to know these characters. Because unlike any other book, the main character is ever-living and never-changing. He is a God who is real, who still works and moves and changes hearts, but it's hard to figure that out when you look at the bible as a bunch of facts and names that are hard to pronounce rather than the living breathing word of God.
We'll never know the bible well enough to not need to read it. No matter how much scripture you know, how much you have memorized, this is one book that never needs to be shut and kept on a shelf. Because you can never know the word of God too much, and just when you think you've got it, He'll teach you something new. So although getting through it is quite the task, God rewards our efforts. Because nothing is sweeter than being met right in the middle of truth when you need it most. And truth be told, reading any amount of it, no matter how much, is better than never reading a word of it at all.
#570 - For words and pages that change lives every single time they are read...and re-read.
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:14-17
After reading Radical, Aaron and I were really challenged to make some life changes. Not that we've been doing things bad or wrong, for that matter. We've just not really lived our life differently, and we've definitely not lived radically. Our day to day looks pretty much the same as everyone else's day. We get up, go to work, take a lunch break, go back to work, come home, eat dinner, and do random things until it's time to go to bed. We found that we are creatures of habit. We talk about making small changes to our day, but we don't. We talk about how we need to eat healthier. We talk about how we need to be more active and work out. We talk about how we need to get this or that in order. We find ourselves always saying we will do one thing, and then we look back to realize that we never did anything. Not that we don't care, not that we don't have good intention, we just fall into routine and monotony so easily that the days pass by without us realizing it.
I think it's easy to do that in life. And maybe, like me, after a while you get a little discouraged. Because you look back and you see that you've done nothing. You really haven't even tried, you've just talked about it. Well, one of the things we were challenged with was to read the bible through in a year. This is one of those very things we have talked about numerous times yet have made little to no effort to actually do it. I love to read, I really do. And I go through spurts where I will read and read and read, and then I'll have a dry spell. There are plenty of days I'd love to just lay and bed and read, and before Aaron and I got married, there were plenty of Saturdays I did exactly that. The reason I love books is because you can get lost in them. For just a little bit of time, you get to live in someone else's world, doing something you'd probably never do. Live in a place you'd never get to live. Have an insider's view on a life that is totally different than yours. But after you've read a book once, there's really no need to go back and read it again. I, myself, haven't done that. If I know the complete story line of the book, I don't bother reading it. If I've seen the movie, I don't bother reading it, either. Because nothing changes on those pages. The plot is still the same, the characters are still the same, and the ending... the same. Why bother reading something you already know when you could move on to something that's new and exciting to you?
I don't know about you, but I think we look at the bible like this. We feel like we already know it. We know so many of its stories, we know how it ends, we know the main characters, and we know the story line. So why do we need to read it more than once? We've read it before. Maybe not the whole thing, but we've read enough of it to get by. Enough of it so that we feel like we're doing a pretty good job. Well, I've gone through seasons, like most of us have, where I've craved the word. Seasons where I searched scripture and read it every single day. And I've had seasons where I only opened my bible on Sundays. Seasons where I carried it around with me, but I didn't really read it. And I've had those seasons where I gave it a valiant effort yet found myself getting distracted or tired and easily giving up. Yet even though the words of scripture never change, even though the story will forever remain the same, I'm amazed that when we read God's word with an honest and open heart, a heart that years to hear Him, to learn about Him, and to grow, we can read the same thing twice and hear multiple different things. I'm amazed at how the Spirit will reveal new things to us the more we re-read those ancient words. And the more we read it, the more we get to know these characters. Because unlike any other book, the main character is ever-living and never-changing. He is a God who is real, who still works and moves and changes hearts, but it's hard to figure that out when you look at the bible as a bunch of facts and names that are hard to pronounce rather than the living breathing word of God.
We'll never know the bible well enough to not need to read it. No matter how much scripture you know, how much you have memorized, this is one book that never needs to be shut and kept on a shelf. Because you can never know the word of God too much, and just when you think you've got it, He'll teach you something new. So although getting through it is quite the task, God rewards our efforts. Because nothing is sweeter than being met right in the middle of truth when you need it most. And truth be told, reading any amount of it, no matter how much, is better than never reading a word of it at all.
#570 - For words and pages that change lives every single time they are read...and re-read.
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:14-17
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