I don’t know about you, but I love New Year’s Eve. Part of it is the host of special memories I associate with December 31: Harlem Globetrotters’ games, my first adolescent crush, my first sermon in Aundrea’s church… But backward-looking memories aren’t my main attraction to New Year’s Eve. Forward-looking aspirations are.
One of the best things about New Year’s Eve is the promise of a fresh start in the morning. January 1 always seems to symbolize inspiring possibilities and new potential; and, of course, many people take advantage of that feeling by forming a few resolutions for the coming year. Twenty years ago I made a New Year’s Resolution to read through the whole Bible in the next 12 months, and it turned out to be one of the best goals I’ve ever set. By God’s grace I’ve kept it up pretty faithfully since then, and I can assure you that the benefits are incalculable.
This year I’d like to invite all of you to join me. If you can commit about 20 minutes a day to read your Bible, you can finish the entire thing in a year. Needless to say, if you’re not reading your Bible much at all on a daily basis, zero to twenty might be too ambitious; you might be wiser to select a reading plan that requires less time. Whatever you decide, please take up this challenge to read God’s word every day. Get a reading plan, pick a daily time, and then amputate a 20-minute item from your current schedule (because you can’t just keep adding things to your schedule forever, you know!). Who knows what God will do in our church if we get in the word together in 2010!