The 20 year hovering

As many of you already know, we are approaching another end of the month reading update journal. That particular journal will probably be quite long, because so far, I have managed to read 7 books.  Before anyone gets too excited, I must warn you that 2 of them were from the young adults section, and one is an American Girl book, but as I said at the beginning of this challenge, the level doesn't matter. A book is a book no matter what the age of the intended reader, thus it was written to be read.  You will get to read about those other books later. This journal, however, I would like to dedicate to one special book.

I guess you can call it the ultimate hover book.  If you thought the 5 year hover of The Tale of Two Cities was outrageous, then grab your pitchfork, and light a torch, because this other hover book has been there for four times as long.

My parents bought it for me after I was able to fluently read a real sentence. I have read through sections of it on and off, but I never really felt obligated to read it all.  The middle was my favorite part, the end (yes, I skipped ahead) was my least favorite, and for a few years, I had the introductory chapters memorized.  My first copy wore out and has since been replaced with multiple other copies.

Last year, I held my most recent copy of the ultimate hover book, and was startled to realize that I could not be absolutely sure I had fully read it.  If there was someone who could give an absolute answer, I would have laid a bet that I had read at least 94% of it. After 20 years of rifling through its pages, the thought of not having read every page was quite disturbing.

I set out a schedule, divided up the chapters, which I loosely followed.  I will admit, it was really hard to follow sometimes. Sometimes, I procrastinated many days before returning to my scheduled chapters.  Some chapters were really complex, others were really disturbing, while still others were incredibly boring, seemingly redundant, and a small percentage were sedately familiar.  I have tried reading it entirely in other phases of my life, and failed.

Most of you have probably already guessed the book by now.  In Autumn of last year, I started actively reading with a goal of reading it entirely (I would guess September), and yesterday, on Resurrection Sunday, I read the last chapters on the schedule, concluding my first, unabridged reading of the Bible.

When I looked at my schedule yesterday morning, I realized, I only had two days' worth of readings left. I read the first days' scheduled chapters, but I was too close to success, and it was such an appropriate day, that I did not have the self-control to wait until today.

Please understand, this is a happy dance, not a "my sash has more badges than yours" show.  I was almost too ashamed to admit that this is my first time, considering that I have had my own copy since I was 5 (complete with a pink cover, silver pages, and beautiful illustrations).  As I said before, I have attempted multiple times before, and failed predictably.  Like a child learning to walk, I had tried, but was simply not ready, and each failure prepared me better for the next attempt.

With all of that said, what do I think about this particular read? Well, forgive me if I do not overly criticize the author, as I have with some other book reviews.

Honestly, there were fewer passages than I had expected that were completely new to me.  What really caught me was how very linked the passages were.  The story of Jael driving a tent stake through a man's temple is difficult to connect to the story of Jesus feeding the multitudes when they are separated for individual commentary. When read as a whole, the threads of God's providence, love, redemption, ingenuity, mercy, justice, wisdom and purposes lace together into a common, sturdy chain that eventually becomes glaringly obvious.

Another thing that struck me throughout the Bible was that the motives in God's commands were never that his people should look pretty, or live complacently.  His commands were for actions, often unpleasant actions, but actions based on faith.  He never intended for his people to be porcelain dolls to be set somewhere on a shelf, dusted and admired. His people, on the other hand, are constantly building they own "shelves" for their porcelain lives.  His people often mistake "chosen" with the word "pampered" and get upset when God gives them rather painful vocabulary lessons.  We were not chosen for useless preening. We were chosen to glorify God through faithful actions and motives.

At the end of this reading journey, when I first sat down to write this blog, the only thing I could come up with was "holy cow!"  but I didn't feel like that would be an appropriate or detailed enough entry.  I was also concerned that someone might think that the end result of me reading through the Bible was a conversion to Hinduism, if I started with such a remark.   

Truly, the thoughts there are to think in response to all those chapters I have read over the past several months are just overwhelming in both variety and number. There are a few specific books within the Bible that I feel I need to go back and reread several times consecutively, so I can better understand the individual books, and really be able to focus on the theme of that particular book in the Bible.

Was it worth the read? Definitely, I'm planning on doing it again.  There is so much more I need to know.  I am so fortunate to have this book available to me, and I should take better advantage of it.

It is time for me to reset my bookmarks and start again. Referring back to my earlier simile, it is not enough for a child to take one step. Everyone rejoices for the first step, but if that is all that ever happens, if that child never takes another step, never chooses a direction, never moves on his own accord, then that first step is a futile effort.