"Lent is about renewal, not just removal. God, give us the strength to let go of what's blocking our view of You." - Bob Goff
I'm not Catholic, but every year when Lent comes around I wonder if I'll give up something. Being brought up in Protestant churches my whole life, I didn't know what Lent was. Years back, a church I was attending (my dad was the youth pastor) did Lent, and I understood it to be a time of fasting between Ash Wednesday and Easter. The thought of fasting from something for 40 days seemed fun, but that was about it.
Over the years, I've mostly given up soda. A few years back I gave up alcohol. Both weren't much of a challenge. Still, I don't think I was quite getting it.
Yeah. I'm giving up something. But is that fasting? Or is that just a diet? In that case, I fasted from carbs a couple years ago and lost 20 pounds.
That just doesn't sound right.
I haven't fasted for lent in over three years, and I thought this would be another year of me thinking about what to give up, and deciding to do nothing. Instead, this came up.
As I've said in prior posts, I have a goal of reading at least 10,000 pages in one year, and I've been doing killing it! On March 3 I finished my sixth book, taking my page count to 1669. I'm already off to a great start.
However, I was convicted. Here I am reading all these books, but the one book I say is my favorite, the one I argue and debate with friends about, and the one I base my life around, I don't read at all: I need to read my Bible.
At the start of last year, I started a reading plan to read the Bible in one year reading 3-4 chapters a day and journaling what I read.
I lasted eleven days.
This isn't the first time I tried and failed to read the Bible the whole way through. I once read through the whole New Testament, but had a hard time going through the Old Testament. Before that I started from Genesis and got through half of Exodus. Other than those few failed attempts, reading the Bible on my own has only been to either prepare for a Bible study or find scripture for a worship set, and not just reading it myself.
I recently found an old Bible of mine. I replaced it a few years back because it was falling apart. It was a very important Bible to me, because I took it on four of my five tours with The Continentals, and when I moved to Fresno. I even had my name tag from The Price Is Right stuck on the inside of the back cover. I picked it up, and not only was it worn out, it also had notes all over it. I wrote in the margins, underlined verses, circled words, and also wrote down the date of when I read the chapter.
Why can't I do that again?
Here I am. I was an English/Philosophy Major in college. I wrote all over my textbooks. But for some reason, about the time I started writing in my books, I stopped writing in my Bible.
This year I've been reading a lot, but not my Bible. So for Lent, I'm giving up reading, and reading only my Bible. I'm writing in the margins, underlining passages, circling words and phrases, pointing arrows to linking parts, and basically just wearing out my Bible. I'm not sitting down at a specific time of day, or setting a timer to make sure I read for at least fifteen minutes, or putting so much effort into reading the Bible "the right way", I'm just reading it. If I read one chapter, or if I read a whole book, it doesn't matter. I'll read as much as I can whenever I can. I can find the time throughout the day to read any other book, why not just read the Bible instead.
I wasn't sure if this sounded pretentious or self-righteous, so I ran it by Michelle. I thought she would tell me how holier-than-thou it sounded, but she was on board!
"You've been reading so much lately, and it'll be good for you to read your Bible. That sounds like a good plan." (I love my wife.)
I then saw the above quote from Bob Goff on his Instagram, and it helped put Lent into perspective for me. I'm not just removing and replacing something from my life; I'm renewing the passion and thirst for God's Word that I need. I'm not saying "I don't need books", I'm saying "I need more of you God!"
I'm hoping this next month and a half to find that passion and joy I used to have for reading the Bible, while being as intentional about reading as I have with the last 1669 pages.
