Monday, January 16, 2012

Reading the Bible in 90 Days by K5



This post is long overdue as K5 completed this mission several weeks ago.  I'm afraid I'm just now getting around to getting it moved over here though.  To quickly run through the gist of the mission, there is a book called The Bible (kidding), there is a version of The Bible which removes all footnotes, comments and everything else.  Once all of those things are removed, one can work their way through The Bible in 90 days by reading 12 pages per day.  K5 says that it took her 30-45 minutes per day to accomplish her reading.  Beyond that, there is a DVD and you watch one segment per week (~40 minutes).

K5 was able to finish in 88 days and here was her summary - click the play button and then continue reading (the video offers the soundtrack for the mission summary):



WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Today was the day. I finished. I have to say the finale was a little bit anti-climactic since I didn't really understand much of what I read in Revelation.

But, looking back over the past 90 days this has really been an amazing experience. First of all, just the fact that I stuck to the program for 90 days and completed all of the reading is a tremendous accomplishment for me. In my life, most of the time, I've been a quitter. I've been someone who quits projects 25-50% finished. I've been someone who focuses on "can't" instead of "will" and finishing this mission really gives me a boost of confidence in those areas.

I know some of you reading this aren't Christians. I'm not trying to preach at you here. I'm just trying to summarize my experience as briefly as I can.

Now for the reading itself. I've heard a pastor at my church say before: "God made man in His image and ever since; man has been trying to return the favor". I didn't realize how much that phrase applied to me until I'd read the entire Bible. I have to be honest, God is not who I thought He was. There was a LOT in there that surprised me. There was a lot in there that I'd have said (if asked) "nah, that doesn't sound like something the God I worship would do". There was a LOT in there that was hard to swallow. But at the same time, I learned that "my" God was no match for the God of the Bible.

In general, I was struck by his faithfulness, his love for his people, his compassion and the things he requires that we do in order to have a close relationship with him. I began (for the first time) to understand what the phrase "God-fearing" really means. I began to see that my image of God was very inconsistent with what the Bible portrays.

All in all - I feel my eyes were opened. I feel awful that I let my own insecurities (I'll never be able to understand what is being said) prevent me from doing this long ago. But I'm thrilled that I'm here now. To read it in 90 days you really have to blaze through pages. I am really looking forward to some more in depth analysis and study of different books in the bible and I now feel like I'm "ready" for that.

Thanks everyone for your support along the way. It is greatly appreciated and having real world accountability combined with accountability here played a tremendous role in my successful completion.

Thank you, loopchange!!


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