because sometimes waiting until January is just silly

January 1st. The new year. That’s when resolutions are made and fresh starts happen.

At least that’s what we tend to think, isn’t it? Especially for a fresh start that involves reading the Bible in one year and just about every daily Bible in existence begins January 1.

So when you commit to the Radical Experiment and begin on June 1, and part of the commitment involves reading the Bible in one year, what are you to do? Sure you could start at January 1, but since January has thirty-one days and June has thirty days, I know I couldn’t get one week into the next month before I got completely lost. And so we begin right in the middle of things, with a daily Bible that provides a portion of the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs each day, on June 1.

And we come into the story, the grandest story ever told, directed by God the Father, starring His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, in the middle of 1 Kings, and are immediately crushed by the words, “But King Solomon loved many foreign women…” (1 Kings 11:1). We watch as God tears away the kingdom from Solomon and divides Isreal from Judah. We see king after king do evil in the sight of the Lord and worship in the high places.

We laugh as Elijah, the prophet, mocks Ahab and the prophets of Baal who are trying to get their god to consume their sacrifice (1 Kings 18:27), and marvel as God sends down fire that consumes the sacrifice that Elijah offers, “and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38).

And in the New Testament readings we begin in the Gospel of John, and watch as Jesus enters Jerusalem on a colt to fulfill the prophecy (John 12:15). We see Him wash the disciples’ feet, providing us with the model of loving humility that we are to follow. And we are dumb-struck by the fact that Jesus knew when he chose Judas Iscariot as a disciple that he would betray Him (John 13:18).

Each day we share our stories with one another, our awe of the Word. And we wonder why we have not done this method of Bible-reading together before now. And we’re glad that we did not wait until January.

Because that just would have been silly.

In hope,
Shelli