After a string of days with tasks that carried some sense of urgency today's to-do list had items with no press to them. My energy level matched. Oh well.
Pam's flight gets in at 3:18 tomorrow afternoon. I'll feed the goats at 1:00, or maybe a little early, clean the bottles, and get in the car for the 2.5 hour drive up to the airport in Portland. We should arrive at the curb about the same time. I am SO eager for her to be back home.
We're part of a small group through church - three other couples and a single gal - that meets in a home on Tuesday evenings. Almost all the dozen or so groups does the same thing at their meeting, whenever it is - discuss a set of questions prepared for us that are based on Brett's sermon from the previous Sunday. I don't know how tightly other groups adhere to those questions, but ours is pretty free form. Our group starts by having dinner together, a pot-luck with people signing up to bring one of the items from the "menu." Last night was a taco bar and, because of my rather limited culinary skills, I took chopped lettuce and diced tomatoes.
In all fairness, they were chopped and diced to perfection.
Then we move to the living room area for our discussion.
At one point the conversation went briefly to the question of how consistent we are spending time each day reading the Bible. Let's just say nobody there scores high on the graph.
Tracy, the single gal, and Pam & I are the only ones without small children. The three couples all have at least two kids, and the oldest of all of them is 9. The youngest is under a year, and several are in diapers and/or preschoolers. So yeah, they're pretty busy people.
There's obviously a connection between their hectic lives and their time spent daily reading the Bible. As they talked about it (and I just listened) it also became clear they all feel a good deal of guilt over the situation. One of the moms said, "I do so much stuff during the day that I know is not essential, that's basically 'time wasting'".
I couldn't take it any longer. I asked her, "Is it time wasting or sanity preserving?" and got this wry smile that said, "Yeah, it's about my sanity."
Then I asked them for a Bible verse saying every Christian is supposed to spend time each day reading the Bible.
Silence.
There are lots of things the Bible tells me that, as a servant of Christ, I must not do - lie, cuss, cheat, fornicate....
There are lots of things the Bible tells me that, as a servant of Christ, I must do - forgive, be hospitable, serve others before self....
Nowhere is there a verse, OT or NT, that says I'm supposed to read my Bible every day. Or every week, or anything of the sort.
The Bible tells me in many places that I derive great benefit from spending time in and learning God's Word. Psalm 1:2, all 176 verses of Ps. 119, Rom. 12:2, are examples. I'm also given plenty of role models who demonstrate the value in knowing Scripture; Ezra 7:10 is a personal favorite. But if daily Bible reading were a sine quo non of the committed Christian life I would expect at least one verse telling me that. Some guidance about how much would be nice, too. One verse? A chapter?
1 Peter 2:2 tells me I should long for pure spiritual milk, and the original readers of Hebrews are rebuked in chapter 5 for not having reached a level of knowledge and understanding of the Word after considerable time as believers.
But still no command to read the Bible daily, or at any interval for that matter.
We all get lots of stuff wrong and feel appropriately guilty for it. Sins of commission and omission. Given that fact we sure don't need the false guilt of a failure to live up to an artificial requirement that turns something legitimately good into a standard of spirituality.
Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic motivation. We all know which one works better. Extrinsic motivation that uses guilt as a primary dynamic is not only ineffective over time, but it robs me of the blessing of the activity when I do it. Do something good for the wrong reasons and so much of the joy and value gets sucked out of it.
I want to read the Word often for the benefit it brings, not to conform to somebody's bogus standard.
1 comment:
I agree. And further, it would have been nearly impossible for 99% of God's people throughout history to even have access to the scriptures beyond short sections - due to limited copies, literacy, etc.
Even huge portions of the commanded Mosaic (ceremonial) law would be impossible unless you lived within a few miles of Jerusalem and the temple. Most lived farther away, in exile or as far as Rome.
Praise God for his grace!
Bible reading is often compared to eating but I find it more analogous to exercise. We know we should do it for the benefits but the only lasting motivation is as you said - internal.
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