January 3rd: Genesis 5-6, Psalm 6-8 and Matthew 5

I remember being twelve and finally making the cut getting onto a little league baseball team. The town I lived in was big on baseball. We actually sent teams to the Little League World Series. Yeah, those 12 year olds that you see balling on ESPN, I knew them. Our town actually had minor league farm teams for kids. You know that your never going to amount to anything in the world of baseball when you don’t actually make the team when you’re that young.

I tried out for little league three consecutive years and didn’t make it. And finally, my last year I made it. A bunch of nine year olds and a girl were taken before me but I was so proud of myself. I watched VCR tapes on how to be a better fielder and hitter. I spent hours by myself swinging at phantom balls in the backyard. Why? Well, because Ken Griffey Jr. had done that as a kid. And hey, he had a video game and shoes named after him.

As I grew up, my self worth no longer rested on my lifetime .163 batting average (if you don’t know baseball, that’s bad… like really bad). But I was still influenced by what other successful people had done with their life. Authors who woke up early to write. Finding Forrester, where Sean Connery’s character urges the young student to just type to get into a rhythm. Composers that wrote volumes of music for just one famous concerto.

This morning, those stories of greatness through repetition haunt me. Cause today, I got nothing. I’m stuck in the familiar. And it’s frustrating. Trying to concentrate while I read these famously familiar chunks of the Bible. The story of Noah. The “How-Majestic-Is-Your-Name” Psalm. And the Sermon on the Mount. Having a hard time trying to see what “new” thing can I learn.

Not coming up with much. But I’m struck again by how long people lived from Adam to Noah. Can you imagine living 969 years like Methuselah? And the whole time, you’re having kids. Let’s say you pop one out every 3 years. That’s potentially 300 kids. At what point do you start forgetting your kid’s names? No wonder they had Native American type names… Sitting Bull’s got nothing on “When-He-Dies-Then-The-Judgment-Comes.”

Noah has his three famous sons at 500 years old. All his other relatives have their first kids 400 years sooner. Which makes me think that Noah probably had more kids before that. I’m not a father, but I can only imagine the grief of a father knowing that most of your children are going to die in the flood. Sure he saves three but what about all the others? Sure, you’re safe. Your wife is safe. Even three of your boys made it. But what about all the others? The door closes and a heart breaks.

Technically, if this was in fact my first time reading through the Bible, I wouldn’t know that Noah got naked-drunk as soon as he could when he got off that boat… but after losing so much… I can understand why he did it.

A swing and a miss? No worries. Back at it tomorrow.

January 2nd: Genesis 3-4, Psalm 3-5 and Matthew 3-4

By the way. Reading some plan that Robert Roberts came up with like a hundred years ago. Bob Roberts. I thought people were more creative back then? Maybe just not with the names.

Today in the reading, sin enters creation. Crap. The intimacy of the first chapters of Genesis is now gone. I can imagine after Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden that they lived on it’s edge. Walking back to the entrance yelling in to the garden. “I’m Sorry!” I wonder how many times Adam went back looked at the garden and cried.

It’s interesting that the fruit tempts Eve because it “was desirable for gaining wisdom.” The temptations that took away my innocence were the same way. Girls. Beer. Curiosity. I wanted “experience.” Wisdom. It’s interesting how much this oldest of temptations still affects people now.

OK. Never thought of this before. Abel. First guy murdered and quite possibly the first person to die. So I wonder if Cain knew what was going to happen? Did he know when he went out into the field that his actions could even kill his brother? I’m not totally sure he did. Obviously, the first family killed animals. Abel offered the fat to God (where did that idea come from anyway?). Cain was obviously frustrated, but how much more tragic would it have been if he was just trying to hurt his brother but not actually trying to kill him. He went too far and his brother starts to bleed…he has no idea how to stop it and boom, first murder. Tragic.

So glad my name isn’t “Seth” or “replacement son because my other son got murdered by my other son.” Seth should’ve had some serious baggage. Seriously.

David. That guy complains… a lot.
But he says this:
Psalm 3:7b
"Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
Break the teeth of the wicked."

I’m gonna start praying this prayer during corporate prayer: “Father God, punch that Osama bin Laden in the face. Amen.”

Some old lady is going to spit out her dentures.

January 1st: Genesis 1-2, Psalm 1-2 and Matthew 1-2

It’s funny when you start something like this the initial desires to do it helps you get through the first couple of days, which is nice. But I’m kinda tired and these six chapters are REALLY familiar. And I really should have started before 11:50. Oops. So much for my resolution.

My family read the first few chapters of Matthew every Christmas morning. I think the idea was that for a brief moment before the chaos, we would remember the “meaning of the season.” Which we did, till I was old enough to read, at which point the goal was to read as fast as humanly possible in order to get to the presents.

Bible college brought an emphasis on Evolution vs Creation. Which of course meant practically memorizing Genesis 1-3 in Hebrew. But today I have to remind myself to stop and think. If I never heard, “In the beginning….” What would I think about this? I think I would be curious where it came from. Moses wrote this stuff, that’s what this study Bible tells me. Who told him about it? God?

But I wouldn’t even know who Moses was if I’d never read Genesis. I suppose I would be skeptical.

Day one down. Only have a couple hundred more days. The Bible equals one big book.

A Resolution Project

The Bible in a year.
Seems like every December, I have the same idea. Read through the Bible starting January 1st. But needless to say, I never do it. Ever. I’m like oh and twenty-eight. I’m the Detroit Lions of Bible reading plans. I think the best I ever did was when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Made it all the way through Kings I think. Which is kinda pathetic that the fourteen-year-old-me was actually more disciplined than the almost-thirty-me.

Now, I work for a not-for-profit that’s sole goal is to get people to read the Bible. Which, I do…most days. OK. Some days.

But I want this year to be different. I want to read through this book in a year. But not as someone that went to a Bible college. Not as a so called “mature” Christian. No, I want to try and see it through “new” eyes. I want to absorb it the same way I read Too Late the Phalarope… uh, the first time I read it. I want the stories to feel fresh and new. This will be hard. But I think it will be rewarding.

This blog will be an attempt to document what I see, feel, learn and when I get frustrated. But people say that the Bible is God communicating to us… to me. I want to see how that really works. How is that possible? How does that relationship grow and develop?

And who knows, I might write some funny stuff too.