The Journeyman Project: Blog Dispatches from the Life of Patrick Fowler: Christianity Explored

Bible in a Year, Follow up: It’s not that big a deal!

Lately I've gotten a few astounded remarks regarding my Bible in a Year post. People see it as such a huge accomplishment...and while I agree that it's hard work, I think that its appropriate to put the work into perspective. It has been a humbling experience for me to realize some of the dynamics of reading below:

Everyone reads a lot more than they think they do:

Regardless of whether it is scrolling stock prices, passing billboards, online news headlines, or interesting novels on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, we live in a society of readers. And most of us digest a lot more text than we think. A year ago a friend of mine posted an astounding analysis of this very phenomenon on his blog, and it seems appropriate to share the results here:

What are we feeding our minds with?

The question is not, 'Are we reading?' The question is, 'Is what we read building us up, or tearing us down?' If the principle of 'garbage in, garbage out' is true, then what is our constant appetite for television shows like "Desperate Housewives" and "24" doing to us? What is it turning us into?

Reading the Bible takes more time than reading a book:

The Bible is a book that involves deep meaning in every page. The act of reading it is an act that allows us to hear the voice of God. It should read at the speed of an academic paper...accompanied by notes, prayers, and appropriate amounts of research.

Thanks to Whitney, Dan and others for their insightful and challenging questions.