In the last few years, I have been lax in my daily Bible reading. Partly due to me making a point to read deeper for longer periods of time rather than shorter daily readings. Basically, when I went to read, I wanted to read longer and deemphasize the shorter readings. I realize short daily readings are not exclusive to less frequent but longer readings, and I am not trying to justify not doing a daily reading. It is a little more complex than that.
Starting about 6 years ago, a little before I met Shannon, I became very cognizant of the idea of being a disciple of Christ and really obeying Him in my actions. I sense the church, or at least my church experience, was focusing too little on the growth of a Christian with too much emphasis on programs and not tools for personal spiritual growth. I decided to focus my life through that prism of discipleship. I reexamined all that I was doing and considered if it was making me more of a disciple or just a busier Christian.
I had the habit of daily Bible reading, and it had shown much fruit in my walk. However, I got to a point where I saw my life hitting stumbling blocks in spiritual areas and not growing as I once had been. I considered my daily reading a discipline and asked myself "Is this the best way to have God's Word change me?" I decided I needed to focus on some new disciplines for a while. One of those was exchanging the daily reading, which had begun to be part chore and part prideful, pat-on-the-back routine, for deeper, less frequent readings.
It was also a time in my life of where I was struggling to manage my time anyway. With Jacob in the mix, my time seemed to dry up and so did my energy. Along with the added responsibilities, I got a bit lazy. Put all of this together - new spiritual focus, new lifestyle and a greater eagerness to veg out my stressed mind - my daily readings stopped.
I decided last year I was ready to change my disciplines again. Like before, I felt my growth as a disciple had stagnated and needed a new dose of spiritual disciplines to get out of the rut. In looking at my life, I believed now was the time to recommit to daily readings. Since Advent, I have been doing daily readings in the Common Book of Prayer. I spoken before of how much I love of the Episcopal church and its worship, and the CBP is at the top. It is a wonderful collection of daily office readings. Each daily reading has assigned passages of text from through out the Bible. One passage each from Old Testament, Gospels and New Testament (minus Gospels) and a two passages (one for morning reading/one for night reading) from Psalms. The daily passages typically take you through one book at a time, but sometimes they break off and select passages from the different sections which corroborate a common idea like Christ's atonement foreshadowed in the Old Testament, shown in the Gospel and explained in the New Testament.
The CBP has readings for a Year 1 and Year 2. You choose the year based on the calendar. For example, I am in Year 2 because this year's Advent started in an even number year. Of course, next year I will be in Year 1. Year 1 and Year 2 readings will take you through the entire Bible.
So far, I have only missed one daily reading which was due to being stranded in Detroit overnight on the scheduled day trip for the GSA meeting without my Bible (or change of clothes). While I am not getting deep readings into the Scripture, I am see themes exposed in Scripture and get a chance to read books I typically would not read by choosing on my own volition.
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