B90X
When I read a book, I don’t read details and individual points. I read general concepts. This is how I do it. This is who I am. So when I tell someone I’ve read a book I’ve enjoyed, and they totally believe it’s blasphemous or heretical or even absurd, then they proceed to show me why on pages, 22, 47, 89, 217, and of course, 666, I am wrong for enjoying the book. I don’t even read there emails or letters in depth. I read, “Wow, they are against that book in a way that I am not.”
In truth, I am a bit envious of people like that. People who can take the time and have the skill set to completely parse each corner and section of a passage written by an author, then tell me what’s good and/or bad about said topic as far as each section/line of the book.
I also wonder how they’re not bipolar (see “A Beautiful Mind”). For no human can possibly get everything right, and I’m sure there are agreements and disagreements about every human author’s writings, namely because there are agreements and disagreements between the writings of the book inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
With that said, On December 28th, 2009, I began to read the Bible within a 90 day period. Some called it B90X, after the popular and intense workout video series. I wouldn’t suggest this type of reading for everyone, because it’s not for everyone. I would say its for people who are like me. They read quickly and take away the one or two main concepts of the book being read. Reading an average of 16 chapters a day probably wouldn’t work for those prone to taking apart every line they read every time they read.
But for those like me, I found the quick trip through the Scriptures refreshing and wonderful, learning things and seeing things I had never seen before. From the beginning of time when God’s amazing creation breathed its first breath to John’s last apocalyptic visions, I was introduced to a story like no other, all of which I’d heard before, but never in an entire complete scenario at one condensed time period. In this reading, for the first time in my life, the writings of Moses and Samuel and David connected so tightly with Luke and John and Paul that I could see the family resemblance.
The Gospel of Jesus came to life once again, as I read about how my Saviour, the Messiah, would live and serve, then apparently be crushed and killed, then be raised again to be with His Father, but not until after He spent a bit more time teaching those He had walked with and discipled for three years.
The best way to describe this way of reading through Scripture is the difference between Watching “Lost” week to week for years and years, and the watching it on DVD through the whole story in one short portion of time. If you’ve ever sat together with your spouse or a friend and watched episode after episode and season after season of a show, this is the way it feels. It comes to life in one shot!
For me, this way of reading the Bible is going to be a habit, for it screams of my best chance to learn and grow from that reading. This is who I am. If you’re an adventurer, I suggest you try it out once and see how you like it. If you don’t, stop. But I suggest that a regular reading of the Bible is important, not only because of what God did those many years ago in Creation to the redemption of the world through Jesus, but because of what He’s doing now in our world.
You can find a 90 day Bible reading plan or another 29 or so plans at youversion.com, a ministry of Lifechurch.tv
Related posts:
Marty,
Good stuff. I would say that I read this way a good 95% of the time as well. It took me a long time to learn how to do exegetical reading when I got to college, and exegetical reading is also important in certain situations. But overall, I feel like conceptual reading is the way to go. It’s way faster and easier to recall later on than exegetical reading is.
one last thing…I do find it funny how you are not a detail oriented person when it comes to reading but you can remember the dates of anything even like 10 or 15 years ago haha.
Great observations.
Just for the record, I think the dude in “A Beautiful Mind” suffered from schizophrenia, which is characterized by bizzare thoughts and hallucinations.
Bipolar disorder is what we used to call manic-depression. It’s characterized by emotional highs and lows. At the very most extrememe ends, either highs or lows can bring about schizo-phrenic like symptoms… But’s that is a pretty rare occurence,
On the whole, sufferers of bipolar disorder generally require less professional support to function in every day society. (Not implying that either is fun or should go untreated.)