Bible Reading: It’s Not For Everyone (and it’s ok)

“‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'” Matthew 22:36-37  NIV

Photo: Renae Bowman

It’s been almost 20 years since I gave my heart to Jesus.

The day I did, I was a working girl.
The day after, I was a working girl.
For well over another decade, I was a working girl.

Each and every morning I dragged myself out of bed and joined the other schleppers on the asphalt pathways to our destinations.
I was in the hamster wheel of daily routines.

And I barely read my Bible.
I wanted to, but…
When was I supposed to?
When was there time for Bible?
I left at the crack of dawn; I returned at the twilight of dusk. When I crossed the threshold of mi casa, one hat went off and another went on. Meals, bills, clutter and chaos filled the remaining hours until the sun came up again.

I felt like somehow, someway I was letting God down.
It was that love-hate relationship with wanting everything God but living everything the world.

I can’t tell you the emotions back then. I had a heavy heart every time I heard, “Give God your morning.”
I didn’t have mornings to give!
My nights were crazy, too!
I battled with wanting to but not being able to. I felt a great disappointment that my routine seemed to not fit His routine.

So this is why I am writing to you today.

If you’re in the hamster wheel of life and find that reading the Bible and going to church and doing deep prayer is THE last thing on your list, I wanna tell you something I wish someone would have told me years ago…
Stop worrying about it!
Seriously…stop worrying about it!
God still loves you.
God will still bless you.

If you head out the door every morning to a job that keeps you away, or are living with babies at your feet, or are driving teenagers to an ungodly amount of crazy events…give yourself a break in the whole realm of the how to do it syndrome!
You have permission to let that go!
You have permission to be human!
The requirements of being a Christian, aren’t requirements! It’s a fallacy of man design.
We get so caught up in the trappings of having to do this and that, with labels of being a Christian, that we’re getting it all wrong.

It’s not about a reading plan, it’s about a living plan!

God doesn’t harp on doing Bible studies; He harps on doing people studies!
He wants us to live out what He came for.
To be different in the world.
To share the Christ-joy you have in your heart.

None of that, any of that, takes a schedule!
None of that takes a list.
It’s all about doing basic Christian stuff in the midst of everything that’s not so basic.

There will be time later on for other things. Other ways. Other callings.
Empty mornings will come. Quiet evenings will come.
The craziness you’re in right now—it won’t always be.
The ups and downs—it’s a moment in time.
The stage you’re in—it will pass—for it seems we’re always moving into one while hoping for another.

And this is where Jesus meets us!
This is why I love our God so incredibly deeply!

He knows your schedule.
He knows the endless commitments.
He knows the responsibilities.
And He works His way into the middle of it all.

I learned quickly in those years of limitations, it’s not about what we can’t do; it’s about what He can do.
And wouldn’t you know it, He finds a way to fill us up.
When you think you can’t read—He turns the radio to a teaching pastor.
When you think you can’t pray—He puts a devotional on your desk.
When you think you can’t study—He provides a verse reminder.
When you think you can’t gather—He sends a friend to visit.

Take a breath my friend.
This Christian thing isn’t about a Bible study.
It’s not about a list to fulfill.
It’s not about getting points for things to be done.
It is about saying yes to the One who gave it all, so you can have it all.

It’s a heart thing, not a book thing. Always has been, always will be.