It is amazing what you actually hear when you listen for an hour or so at a time. The stories flow with meaning and sense. God is also frightening in the Old Testament. I have a new understanding of what the fear of the Lord is. Through many flights and many flight mishaps that left me overnight in who-knows-where, I made it. I finished the whole Bible in one year and one month and one week.
Well, for me, it is not enough to have accomplished it or even be in the process of accomplishing it. I have to do something with it to make it meaningful. (I hate that about myself.) Also, perhaps that little girl in me wants to say, “See everybody, see what I am doing. See what I did!” so they can all say, “Congratulations, little Kathy! You did a great job!” (I can just hear my Grandma Karol saying that….even about the worst craft in the 5th grade vacation bible school!)
So – I decided I would use it as a witnessing tool. Sitting next to some businessman clunking at his computer with two rapid fingers as he verbosely keys emails that are going nowhere until we land, I say,” I am trying to listen to the Bible in a year! Kind of interesting when you hear a long stretch of it.” “Humph!” He stops long enough to size me up. I put on my earphones, and feeling a lot like Ellen DeGenres, I try another tactic. I put my hand to my ear and say loudly, “Oh my gosh! I never heard that before!” He taps my shoulder. I act as though I do not mind being interrupted from my engrossment, “Yes?” I say as innocently as I can. Then I realize the battery signal on his computer is flashing which means he has nothing to do now so he is ready to talk. “I don’t believe in God – really. I find the Bible full of contradictions.”
“Wow. You don’t believe in God. That fascinates me. What do you do with yourself when you feel alone, afraid, vulnerable, like a failure? I cannot imagine facing those moments without God.”
“I take myself by my bootstraps and give myself a swift kick in the pants and say get up buddy and take life by the horns. Then I indulge myself with something fun.”
“Does that work for you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Wow, I tell myself that no matter where I go, God is always with me and I look for something good to do for someone else – that does it for me every time.”
“I do a lot of good in this world. I usually live right. If there is a god that should cover me.”
“Sounds like a kid on an ocean liner who says, “I am usually a good swimmer. I have been in my pool a lot this year. I should be able to jump overboard and be alright.”
“I don’t get that analogy at all. It makes no sense to me.”
“I am not good with analogies. All I know is that with everything in me I know the God of the Bible is real and I will be with Him in eternity.”
“Well goodie for you.”
SILENCE……
“Are we done with the God conversation? I mean, I usually don’t do well telling people how I feel about God. I am kind of – well – I prefer to live a Godly life and let folks ask me what’s my secret.”
“So you are embarrassed to be a Christian? I would be.”
This is not going well. “No – I just hate saying all the same things that all Christians say to people they are trying to “evangelize” (I do the hand quotation thingy in the air) – because it sounds fake – but I know that it is not fake. How do you tell someone about something that is real when he has heard it a thousand times before and not believed it? That is my problem. I am just not creative or persuasive.”
“Now you have my attention.”
With amazing words and just the right scripture from any book of the Bible you can think of I bring this man to his knees before God. Well – if we didn’t have on seat belts he would have been on his knees.
The next thing I know, we have to put the seat backs up and the steward is saying “Miss-Miss! Wake up!” Darn – none if it was real and I missed the entire book of Lamentations. The man next to me was snoring. Oh well. I cannot even do something with my accomplishment in my dreams.
So I started again this year. New job, new opportunities – less chance of falling asleep at the wheel driving back and forth to Winter Haven. I am “reading” the Bible in a year. I am at Deuteronomy.
