Hi

I’ve read that I should introduce myself and my blog, so you can decide whether or not you want to read it. So here:

Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, says we become experts after doing something for 10,000 hours. That’s a lot of time and I’m not sure I’ve done any single thing that much; but reading the bible might come close.

I started reading it daily when I was 12 years old and I doubt I’ve missed more than 20 days in my whole life. I am 51 as I write this.

Granted, for the first many years ‘reading’ meant plopping it open, reading one or two verses, then closing it. Now, I use the One Year Bible and have read it through every year for the past 7 years.

I love the bible.

I have used it as prayer while I sobbed out my broken heart. I have laughed with it. I have raged at it; and I have wept while it pierced me with joy.

I believe it’s more than a book. It is an instrument God uses to speak to me, to us. It’s not His only instrument, but it is one of His favorites.

It’s a big book – huge – and terribly cryptic. It has to be because it is the master key to all of life for all people over all time. It is the Author’s notes to the universe.

So even if I had read it for 10,000 hours, I wouldn’t be an expert.

But I have learned some things.

I’ve learned that God is incredibly smart.

He can take one life and do magic in it, while also using that life to make magic in a vast tapestry of lives. He can work in powerful but intimate ways in Abraham’s life – ways that are, to Abraham, profound and intensely personal – and at the same time, by the same work, be deliberately creating metaphors for you and me.

God can do that. And while doing all that He also writes it down, using the very limited understanding of men and women who never have the benefit of the whole picture.

That’s how He gives us His book; and it is probably what I will blog about most.

I want you to know that I believe the Bible is God’s book to me, to us, to everyone. I believe it is absolutely, irrevocably true, even though not every word is meant to be taken literally. I believe that if we will read it humbly, openly, and thoughtfully, God will lead us to Himself and we will find that He is all we ever wanted.

That is probably the most important thing about me.

But I want to tell you this, too: writing is how I figure things out, and I have lots to figure out. Sometimes I can’t move until I figure things out. So I write to learn; and sharing what I learn gives me joy.

So I blog.