If you’re participating in the Seven4Seven adventure, you will either love me or hate me by the end of this post.
For those who are late to the show, Seven4Seven is a read-through-the-bible-in-a-year thing. We started in November and every Sunday night I post seven days of reading for the next seven days of the week. The goal is to read the entire Bible in a year, chronologically, which makes this one a little different than some of the other Bible read-throughs you may have heard about before. You can read all about Seven4Seven here.
Last week I mentioned we’re more than halfway there. It feels good. There’s something about reading the entire book that brings the whole story to life. And having a weekly reading schedule goes a long way to keeping me accountable to investing in my spiritual self. I’m a list-maker, to-do follower and all-around legalistic recoverer. Which means what I’m about to do goes against my grain big time.
I’m not giving you the list of reading for this week. Period.
Some of you are behind, anyway. [enormous exhale]. This week will help you play catch-up. Enjoy the time … and stick with it. Or maybe you want to go back and read a couple stories or Psalms, dig in a little more or keep it fresh. Revisit the stories you wanted to spend more time on, but couldn’t because of the schedule.
The rest of you are annoyed as heck. You’re on a tight schedule. A “read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year” program is supposed to be completed in a year, not 53 weeks. Isn’t messing with the schedule, like, sinning? Does it still count if it’s more like 13 months?
Do something for me, will you? Inhale. And exhale. It’s going to be okay.
This is a conscious decision to make it less about the to-do-list reading and more about savoring the sweetness of it. Pick your favorites and re-read them. Pull out a notebook and journal. Read Ruth again. Doesn’t matter … open yourself up to whatever possibilities await. Let God lead you to the well and lower your bucket for a big drink.
I think it’s great you are doing this – posting a schedule is an encouragement.
Whether staying on schedule or not, the old Nike wisdom – just do it. Even if it takes 10 or 20 years.