Day 21: Finish Reading the Bible
Today's new experience has been quite a long time in the making. It certainly wasn't something I just conjured up for this little 30th birthday extravaganza of mine. Many people like to follow a reading plan for their daily studies. Some people adhere to the Bible in a year program. While any one of many possible options probably would have expedited the process exponetially, my method of reading my Bible sporadically until I can barely stay awake (which was usually about 10-15 minutes in) still got me to the same end result. I finished reading the entire Bible.
When I say the entire Bible I do mean the ENTIRE Bible. There was no skimming the boring parts, or skipping any of the begats. I read that puppy word for word. Now granted, sometimes that meant making up my own pronunciation for some of those unique old testament names, but none-the-less, I read them all.
So as the good little Christian that I am, after reading through the Bible from cover to cover I must have some profound new insights into the character of God, right? Well not really, because I'm not that profound. That's not to say I didn't gain anything from it though. First of all, reading through the Bible straight through gave me a much better understanding of the time line of things. I now know how all the different stories and events fit together. I also understand a little better how the Bible is organized. I always knew it wasn't arranged in perfect chronological order, but quite frankly my logical brain couldn't figure out why. After reading through it all, it appears that perhaps they did actually know what they were doing when they put it together. And of course, I can't forget all the songs that came out of the recesses of my brain as I read the verses that inspired, or in many cases were word for word, the lyrics. You'd be amazed at how quickly you can recall the melody to a song that you used to sing a couple decades ago when you read the verse in the Bible that it was based on. There are a lot of songs in the Bible (and a lot of melodies in my head!)
This is certainly one experience worthy of repeating. I could start over right now and it would be like a whole new book, with new insights and impressions. I don't know if I would read it from beginning to end in the order in which it is written or not. Maybe I'll try the smart thing and follow some sort of a reading plan so that I will actually finish before Jesus returns.
I didn't think this was boring--enjoyed your insights. And I do the same thing with songs I remember from Scripture. As a matter of fact, I started putting a musical note next to every passage where it reminds me of a song. It's great to skim thru the Psalms sometimes and just try singing a few of the songs wherever I see those musical notes. :) Congrats on this accomplishment--it IS quite a feat.
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