Sixty Days: Day Four

 

Yesterday's Reading:

• Genesis 16-22
• Psalms 9-12

Today's Reading

• Genesis 23-30
• Psalms 13-16
• Isaiah 9-16
• Matthew 5-8
• Romans 6-10

Reading Time:  Unknown

 

Wait a minute, you might say.  What happened to Day Three?

 

To be perfectly honest, what happened to Day Three is that it fell on the busiest day of my week--Sunday.  And this particular Sunday was busier than most other Sundays.  Just a lot going on.  For me, Sunday is the hardest day to keep up with a regular reading schedule such as the one I have set for myself.  Whatever time I have before church on Sunday morning is usually spent in final preparation for that service.  Sunday morning service is followed by lunch, which is followed by a needful period of rest, followed by final preparations for the Sunday evening service, the service itself, another meal, and then it's 9 o'clock at night and I have hardly had a spare moment to sit down and read for an hour.  By 9 o'clock at night on a Sunday night, my brain is fried, my emotions spent, my body exhausted.  Concentration takes a lot of effort.  Last night, I managed to read 11 chapters before I started nodding off into oblivion.

 

Now, I am by no means under any legal obligation to read 20 chapters a day.  God is not going to be happier with me if I read 20 chapters instead of 11, or none for that matter.  My crowns in heaven will not be encrusted with more jewels, if I even get a crown.  My robe will not be whiter.  My glorified body will not be better looking.  This reading plan doesn't rack up brownie points or bonus points in eternity.  It's just my reading plan.  If I skip a day, it's okay.  The Bible Reading Plan Police are not going to come lock me up if I skip a day.

 

But there is a part of me, something within my nature, that screams at the top of it's lungs to remind me that I made a commitment to read 20 chapters a day.  That I made a commitment to finish he Bible by the end of October.  It was a commitment to myself; nevertheless, it was a commitment.  So I spent all of today trying to catch up.  The problem with Mondays is that I am still physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually drained.  My mind keeps wandering, if not completely shutting down.  I prefer rest or mindless physical activity like rearranging church chairs.

 

So I spent from 9 o'clock this morning until 4 o'clock this afternoon trying to read 29 chapters of the Bible.  Should have taken me an hour and 20 minutes.  But now I'm finished for the day.

 

My point is this:  Just keep reading.  Even if you can't do 20 chapters in a sitting, keep reading.  Even if your mind can't absorb the vast amount of information you are feeding it, keep reading.  Even if you fall behind in Casey's Sixty Day Reading Challenge, keep reading.  Because it's not the time you spend doing it that is important, neither is it the speed with which you read, nor the chapters that you cover.  What matters most is that you are feasting from the word of God.  You are taking the bread of life into your spiritual system and nourishing your spiritual man. 

 

So for your own spiritual health, keep reading.