Summer wind

It doesn't look much like a summer day to me. It's cloudy and kind of dark and rainy-ish looking. Looks like it's going to be a wonderful day. =) Michigan has a lot of clouds. I like them.

So, some of you may remember that at the beginning of the year, I said something about trying to read the NT 15 times this year. I made a schedule to follow and everything with about thirty extra days. It's hard to read twelve plus chapters of the Bible on holidays. It's going well thus far. I think I've actually gotten ahead. (At the beginning, I had to read an average of 11.5 chapters a day, now it's a little less than 10.) The interesting part is that I think this is why I don't have a job. lol

It's true though. Because if I had a job, I really doubt I'd have the determination to spend the required amount of time reading when I suddenly had so much less time in general. A saddening fact of my spiritual life, to be sure. It bothers me immensely. And yet, the fact that I've (through God's grace) been able to stick with it this long is huge to me. It's incredible what it does for your mental process when you just read the Word for 30 minutes to an hour a day.

I started this because I was unhappy with my level of familiarity with the NT. I couldn't have told you where well-known verses were. All I knew about I Corinthians was that it had the communion passage and the verse about being the temple of the Holy Ghost. It was awful. And while I think and hope that I have a better hold on what's in which book, that hasn't been the point of my reading for quite some time now. I've gotten so used to it, that if I don't spend that much time, it feels awkward. If I read a chapter or two of Colossians rather than the book, it feels incomplete. Besides the fact that it's only four chapters! It takes what? Ten minutes?

All my life I've heard, "You don't have to read a lot for devotions. You can just read a few verses, maybe only one." And yes, it's true. But the things we miss because we don't just read. You just sit down and read a normal book, and when you come to something that you have to think about, then you pause and think about it. You mull it over for a day and then start reading again. To be sure the Bible has so much more to offer so there's much more to stop and think about. But still. . . How often do young people who've been saved just end up reading a verse before they go to bed at night in order to satisfy their conscience? I did that for a long time (well, I read a chapter. . . But the Psalms are really short). I was told it was okay.

I'm afraid for the end of the year to come because I don't know what to do next, and I don't want to go back. I want to keep moving forward. I want to do better.