One in a Million

Have you ever paid attention to how you spend your free time? Or your miscellaneous time?

A few months ago, I was thinking about how a 24 hour day goes by so fast. I generally sleep 8 hours a night, work an 11 hour shift (7am-6pm) and then drive a total of 1 hour with my commute to work. So that’s 20 hours. But where do the other 4 go?

I challenged myself to keep track of what I do during a typical day that contributes to the remaining 4 hours of my day. What I found? 75% of the time was spent in front of the tv or my phone, the other 25% was working out… or occasionally reading my Bible… but most of the time it was because I had to read for Lifegroup that day.

At the same time I was feeling convicted by this thought, I was reading a book called “Humility.” In this specific chapter I was in, he brought up a statistic that left me speechless. He said, the average American spends 1 hour a day in the car. What do you do when you are in the car? Typically listen to music, browse the radio stations, or have a cycle of phone calls to make. Then he went on to say- if you replace that 1 hour a day with listening to the Bible, you can finish the ENTIRE Bible in 3 months. THREE MONTHS.

I was already feeling God convict me of not spending enough time in the Word. Because of my long work days, the last thing I felt like doing when I got home was reading. Really, the only time I would open my Bible was on Wednesday’s when I had the day off- and to be completely honest it was to find something to share at Lifegroup that night when I tried to put on an act that I was reading regularly… but I don’t think anyone was fooled when it took me months to make it through the book of Romans.

I mentioned briefly in my first blog post… and anyone who knows me already knows this (probably too well) – but I have an extreme Type A personality. It is very hard for me to do things that I enjoy, unless they are a part of my checklist. That is why I was hesitant to do this blog- because I knew my natural instinct would be to put in as another item on my checklist. It would just become another “chore” for me to accomplish. I would put pressure on myself to deliver posts week after week even if I didn’t have anything meaningful to share.

I say that to make the point- I love goals and I love accomplishments. But they always end up on a “to-do” list. Then things I like to do turn into things I do, not because I want to.. but because I have to. 2 years in a row I committed to read the Bible in a year. I would wake up before school/work – sometimes at 3:30 am to read my Bible. Most days I would fall asleep in the middle of it, I could never tell you what I read, but I checked it off my list. And did the same thing for 365 days in a row. I got to the end of the year and realized I knew nothing more about the Bible and nothing more about the heart of God than I did a year ago.

So I decided to do it again. I was committed to getting OUT of bed to read. To come up with a synopsis for each day to test myself on what I read. It went well for a few months and then I fell back into my old cycle. At the end of the 365 days, again, I knew very little about the Bible compared to where I was a year ago.

So when the thought was presented to listen to the Bible on your 1 hour commute each day, I was intrigued by the challenge. I could finish the whole Bible in three months. Wow. What a good way to spend my miscellaneous time. But I knew myself. And what good would it be to put pressure on myself to spend every minute listening to the Bible when I knew in my heart I would spend most of it day dreaming and likely (once again) know very little about the Bible at the end of the three months.

I needed a change. I needed something that intrigued me and forced me to delve deep into not just the Bible, but the heart and character of God.

That’s when I found the Bible Recap. A lady in my lifegroup had started this study earlier this year and I was always amazed at the interesting things she would share about the Bible readings she had been doing.. but it was a big commitment and I just wasn’t feeling it at the time.

Conviction after conviction, I finally verbalized it to our group so I had people holding me accountable. So on August 11^th, I began the Bible Recap. Basically, it is a study on the Bible app. It has daily readings marked out so you complete the Bible in a year, in chronological order (my brain LOVES that)! And then after you read, there is a podcast that spends 7-8 minutes “recapping” that days reading. The give insight into historically what is happening at that time in the Bible and links so many metaphors or moments of foreshadowing that you would never even think of.

Lastly, it ends with a God shot. It makes you take that reading a find a moment where God revealed His character to you. That has by far been the most impactful thing to me. Because I don’t know about you, but when I am reading through Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy – its hard for me  to find God in that… and therefore find purpose in reading those books.

So… to be honest I really started this blog post wanting to share one of my recent Bible Recaps I read because it really hit home for me. And then I started with an introduction that kind of turned into it’s own post LOL. But anyway, here we are and I am still going to share from my Bible reading so I hope y’all will keep reading!

Have you heard of Asaph? Okay cool, because me either. And as I mentioned before, I have “read” the Bible from cover to cover TWICE. (My point proven- I didn’t actually READ to comprehend.)

Well Asaph was a musician. He played the cymbals and made music as it related to the Ark of the Covenant. He is only listed in the Bible under 12 psalms (50 and 73-83) which were the “Psalms of Asaph.” In Psalm 73 Asaph wrote a song. In his song, his eyes seemed to focus on others which turned into him comparing himself to others. And what does comparison turn into? It can ultimately be contributed to the “thief of joy.” Comparison to others makes us question God’s goodness… why does God give them “xyz” and I only get “so and so?” Asaph’s proximity to God determined his view of the world. When his eyes were on the world – he lost sight of God.

Then jump to Psalm 77 (which is chronologically written after Psalm 73). Asaph’s thoughts were wrapped in anxiety and trouble- even as he tried to re-fix his thoughts on God. He was only able to calm himself when he spoke his past to his present. He reminded himself of God’s past faithfulness. He sang songs of praises he wrote from a time in his life when praise came more easily.

In verse 11-14 Asaph sings, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your miracles long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles, you display your power among the peoples.”

 He continually points to the fact that God’s character can be trusted. In verse 19, he says, “Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though footprints were not seen.”

THROUGH the sea. Not around the sea. But THROUGH the sea. It wasn’t the easy way. It was the impossible way. It was the tough way. It was the miraculous way. The way where God gets all the glory. And leaves us with an unforgettable mark of his love and provision.

God shot #1: Preach God’s light to your darkness. My prayer has been – May God take my eyes off of others, my problems, myself, and my desires so I can see where real JOY comes from.

God shot #2: We aren’t loved because we are lovely. We are loved because God detaches us from our sin when he looks at us. And to him, we are lovely.

Obviously, all this talk about “miracles” and the “impossible” hits home. God took me and my family THROUGH the sea so we had no answers but to say “That was GOD.” There were no footprints around the sea because God carried us straight THROUGH it… mighty waves and all.