The Bible in 90 Days!
“What are you giving up for Lent this year?” I cannot tell you how often that question has been asked of me. Every year, beginning in early February, that was the question on many of my friends’ and family members’ minds. By the time I hit my twenties, it felt like the act of giving something up for Lent had become more the focus than those forty days before Easter. I’m not in any way knocking the penitence that is the purpose behind giving something up for Lent; I simply felt like the giving up of something was more important than the reason I was giving it up in the first place. I would give up sweets for Lent and that was great for about two weeks. Then I stopped craving sweets and found myself going days – or weeks – without wanting a cookie or piece of candy. Self-denial as penitence only works as a way to direct your focus on God when you’re actually denying yourself of something you crave.
Thus began my exploration into other ways to observe Lent. Instead of giving something up, I decided to take something on. After focusing the last several years on various prayers and daily devotionals, I’ve decided to take on my biggest Lenten challenge yet. I am going to read the Bible cover to cover in ninety days. My inspiration for this is Scott’s mom. When she was visiting last week, I saw her book, The Bible in 90 Days, on the coffee table and was immediately interested. I thought to myself after seeing her book, “Three months? Now THAT I can do!” I’ve tried the “read the Bible in a year” thing before, but several months into it, I just found excuse after excuse after excuse – all pathetic – for stopping. A year is a very long commitment no matter how committed you are in the beginning. Also, and I realize this now though I didn’t so much then, my only human support group was me. That’s not always the best motivator. Because I could both acknowledge and accept that as a shortcoming, I decided to ask both my mom and Scott to join me in my pursuit of the Word. Both agreed, so the three of us (along with Scott’s mom, who is about three weeks-ish ahead of us) will be reading the Bible throughout Lent. We will begin on Ash Wednesday and our end date is May 19. I have no doubt that at some point, each one of us will struggle during this time. For those of you who read my blog, I ask the following of you: Please pray for us when you have a moment. Pray for perseverance, time management, and, most of all, a deeper understanding of God’s word in our hearts and minds. And if you feel called to join us on our journey, let me know so I can pray the same for you.