Bible Beatin'

No, I'm not about to go on a tirade about religion or religious figures-if you know me, that's not really my style. Religion and politics are two subjects you just don't want to touch outside a group of identically minded people! We even discussed that at art class last night.

I like the word "spiritual," and it is probably a good descriptive word regarding me on this topic, and I'll just leave it at that. I'm not really into over-analyzing religion, I think a person just have to go with what suits them and that's that.

I have gotten some comments before regarding my being an English major/book loving junkie and the Bible. In an off the cuff conversation about Bibles yesterday, my mother told me she didn't know why I haven't read the whole Bible. Well, lord goodness! I responded with the good ole "Well, why haven't you!" That's a big undertaking for anyone! It's funny, now that I've thought about it, I've gotten that before from friends who've said something similar to me. I guess that they just figure since I'm a reader, and a fairly fast reader at that, it is weird I haven't read more/most of the Bible and that I could probably read the whole thing at record breaking speed. Yeah, right! I will even admit and give Brittany Stegall complete credit for calling, waking me up, and getting me to church on Easter this year. Yes, the covers were initially pulled tight over my head, but I later appreciated her efforts to stimulate my soul!

It's an interesting idea. I don't know ANYONE who has read the whole thing, outside of preachers, and I would like to think they've made it through a few times! People always say they want to read it all before they die. There are websites with lesson plans and ways to break it down over the course of a year. So you know I've sat here and thought about it today. I went ahead and googled it, just to see some statistics. If you read it straight through, it'd take between 70-76 hours, from several sources I saw. There are 31, 102 verses/sentences in it. 66 books in modern Protestant versions and 1168 chapters (if the source I was looking at is right, please correct someone if I'm wrong). That's intense. It would be interesting. If you read the Bible for three hours a day (not an uncommon amount of time for me to tirelessly devote to of a fabulous book I'm in the middle of), you could do it in 23 days. Of course, speed reading the bible and actually soaking it in are two different things, right?

If this was ever an undertaking of mine, I would never publicly advertise it, for fear of failure to follow through and everyone knowing about it. This would almost be as ambitious as my goal/dream/fantasy of memorizing Johnny Cash's I've Been Everywhere and busting out a flawless rendition in a karaoke bar.






I AM going to one day.

In conclusion, it would be cool if you were at a meet and greet or seminar, and the one cool thing about yourself you had to announce was that you read the Bible, straight through, in under a month. I'd be pretty impressed!