Reading the Bible Through in a Year

 Do you know how many times I have started to read the Bible through in a year?  I don't either.  I don't usually make it very far before I get behind and quit.  This year, I was determined to complete this goal.

This shouldn't be that hard, right?  I broke it down into 4.1 pages a day and it shouldn't be more than 15-20 minutes a day.  I am close to being on schedule.  I may be a little bit behind, but not so behind that I feel defeated.  However, I may not take this approach to reading the Bible in the future.  

Here are some of the things that I've noticed about this plan for me:

1. Most of the time I am reading just to get through it and my comprehension is not what it should be.

2. I get frustrated when I don't understand the symbolism, which is very prevalent in the Old Testament.  And the parables.  I failed a World Literature class in college because I didn't understand symbolism.  I don't like poetry for the same reason.  Tell me exactly what you mean.  Don't make me guess or infer.

3. Whenever I sit down to read God's Word, Satan will use anything to distract me.  All kinds of things come into my mind to distract me.

4. I am also frustrated that I don't have time to dig deeper and try to understand the symbolism from commentaries and still finish in a year.

5. A lot of the Old Testament is "boring" with the genealogies and divisions of Israel that are found duplicated.  Not to mention all the laws.

6. I'm afraid that when I get to the New Testament I will be frustrated by all the practical teaching that is packed into it's pages and it will be too much to absorb.  

All that to say, this may not be the plan for me.  I think I will find something that moves at a slower pace and allows me time to research and digest.  

I spent a lot of years not doing any daily reading of God's Word.  My excuse was that I could never find the right time of day or the right plan.  Everyone learns at a different speed and in a different way.  While this may not be the best plan for me, it has been beneficial to establish a regular habit of reading God's Word.  That is never a waste of time.  If you not spending time daily in God's Word, I would encourage you to do so.  Find what works for you.

A Sleeping Giant Awakens

In my heart lives a sleeping giant.  His name is HOPE (for relationship).  He sleeps for years at a time until an experience nudges at him until he is awake.  This time, it was an experience with a catfish.  I am very aware of catfish; how they work, the red flags.  I avoid them as much as possible.  I don’t accept friend requests on Facebook from people I don’t know.  I check to see if they are friends of a friend or someone I might know.  Most times, they are recently created profiles and have no friends.  I don’t accept message requests from people I don’t know.  This experience happened over a game of Scrabble.

I’ve been playing Scrabble with just one friend.  I get requests to play games with other people several times a day.  Mostly men and some start off with a direct message.  I have been declining games.   I thought maybe I would accept a game if I found someone who had a score average close to mine (most are far below mine).  So, I accepted a game from someone named David.  We played several rounds with no communication.  Then he messaged me and we began to chat.  I suspected a catfish from the beginning.  The red flags were there: widowed, engineer, a young child in his life, foreign born, etc.  I told him that I suspected he was a catfish.  What’s a catfish, he asked.  Who in 2022 does not know what a catfish is?  Scrabble chat feature is cumbersome so we moved to Google Chat which I also found odd.  I went from 50/50 suspicion of catfish to 15/85 suspicion of catfish – he was good at convincing me that he was not.  Now, I am at 95/5 suspicion that he is a catfish. 

Back to the giant.  What really woke the Giant was a song that he sent to me, Perfect by Ed Sheeran.  If you like love songs, it’s a great one.  It stirred up all those emotions of longing and desire for a relationship.  The Giant was waking up.

I have five life principles.  One of them is to live in contentment.  The Giant is not helpful in living out that principle.  He breeds discontentment. 

 Our small group lessons today was on contentment.  Paul, in Philippians 4:11, tells us to be content in whatever circumstances.  We should live in contentment, not necessarily with contentment of our circumstances.  Contentment is not happiness.  It is deeper than that.  We can live in contentment because our contentment comes from God; not from people or circumstances.  We can dwell peaceably in whatever situation we find ourselves because we can trust God. 

But, how do we do that? 

• ·      Philippians 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.
• ·       Use your circumstances to share the love of God and saving grace of Jesus Christ
• ·     Keep your walk with God close so that your response to circumstances is positive and God honoring. 
• ·      Focus on something/someone other than yourself.

 

Now….to put that Giant back to sleep.  😊

End of 2021

 It's been a very long time since I've written a blog.  13 years long.  It may be another 13 before I write another.  :-)

Around Christmas, I had an interesting several weeks.  I found myself in a "mood" that I have never experienced for more than a few hours, at most.  I was in a "funk".  Was it the melancholy side of my personality taking over my life?  Was it depression?  Even if I had thoughts of depression, I always seemed to be able to stop thinking those thoughts and focus on something else.  Even during my amputation and recovery, I was never depressed.  I always knew that God had a plan.  So, what was going on?

 I felt alone.  Was it because Sadie passed and I was coming home to an empty house?  Was I watching too many sappy Hallmark Christmas movies?  Was I mad at God for never bringing a husband into my life?

I felt dissatisfied with my weight, the way I looked, my physical condition.  I've recently been told I'm diabetic.  I love sweets and carbs!  I need to figure out a new way to eat and find a way to exercise .

I'm dissatisfied with my prosthetic.  We have a tolerate/hate relationship.  It doesn't seem to fit right (probably due to weight gain), I can't bear weight on it because it hurts, I can get more done from a wheelchair, etc.  I wish that I could wear it and do steps so that I could get into people's homes.  I haven't even attempted to wear it for several months.  Anybody need a leg to make a lamp?  Or a plant stand?  :-)

I'm dissatisfied with the state of the world and all the hate, all the intolerance and lack of respect of people.  The truth is illusive.  Who do you believe?  And Covid has disrupted our lives for entirely too long.  I'm tired of it all.  My only recourse if to love God and love people equally.

It's been several weeks since I started this.  The "funk" has left.  I suspected a medication so I stopped taking it.  Then I restarted it and did not experience any sort of depression, so I guess that wasn't the culprit.  I'm still not sure what was going on but what came out of that was an empathy for those who experience real depression.  Though the memory of that experience is fading, I hope that the empathy stays.