"For we walk by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7So read the motto of my church's junior-high youth group. The group was called Faith Walkers, and like many Christian youth programs around the country, it suffered from paltry attendance, insufficient volunteers and diminished funding. Nevertheless, I was one of the handful of regulars who made almost every meeting. By the time I graduated from the program and was confirmed into the Lutheran church, I knew more about the Bible than almost all of my peers. I was already asking the "big questions", and already formulating my answers. I was well ahead of the game in my faith journey, continually growing closer to God.
Two months ago, I realized that was no longer the case. I went on a mission trip over spring break to an orphanage in Guatemala, and it was a fun and rewarding experience. But I was totally out of my league. Of the nine fellow students and the pastor that went with me, it was evident that I made Christ a part of my life the least. I spoke about Him the least. I knew about the Bible the least. I let my faith shine through me the least, and I was the least practiced at articulating it. Occasionally people spoke to me about things in the Bible which I didn't know, or had forgotten. Others would ask me to share my "testimonial", and I wouldn't know what to say. The people on the trip were nothing but friendly, but the more apparent my comparative ignorance became, the more uncomfortable I began to feel. It was God's way of telling me that I needed to make Him a bigger part of my daily life than I currently was.
Let's back up a bit. My name is Andrew Doris. I'm a 19 year old Political Science major at Johns Hopkins University, and the oldest of four children in a loving, close-knit suburban family. I've been a Christian my whole life, and I don't want to overstate how much I've become distracted from my faith. I still pray almost every night, and go to worship most Sundays. By the standards of most college students, that makes me practically a saint! And over my high school years, I did actively participate in church. I served a year on church council, and then worked with a special task force to facilitate the transition between pastors and youth directors. I even studied the history behind my Protestantism: Martin Luther, the 95 Theses, Calvin, Zwingli, the whole deal. And just a year ago, I wrote a series of blogs about my faith over the course of a week on another blog (which I'll discuss tomorrow). I was an active Christian, but I wasn't developing my faith. At no point did I ever regress in my understanding of the Bible; I'd simply stopped making a conscious effort to grow in it.
The Bible contains 66 books, written by approximately 40 different authors, over the course of 1600 years, on 3 different continents, and in 3 different languages. Since those books were collected, they have been translated into over 450 different languages in their entirety, with portions of it being translated into almost 2,000 languages. It has transformed more lives over the course of history than any other book. The religion it birthed has shaped all of Western culture as we know it, been at the epicenter of dozens of wars and thousands if not millions of deaths. It also includes the Torah, which is the religious text of millions of others. I has shaped our weekly calendar and our yearly holidays. It shapes our laws, our behavior, our relationships, and our views on right and wrong. It provides the moral framework for hundreds of governments and billions of people, and I call myself among those people.
The trouble is, I've never read it.
How can this be? How can I profess to believe, much less live my entire life in accordance with, a book I've never read? I'm not sure. To be clear, I've read many parts of the Bible. I've studied all the famous stories, acted some out in plays when I was little, and talked about them in Sunday school. I've done Bible studies in high school, college, church, and even at home. But I've never read all of it straight through. In fact, I've never read more than one chapter consecutively, and it's been more than a year since I read any of it at all.
I don't think that's uncommon among Christians, but I also don't think it's a good thing. I want to fix it. So this summer, I've decided to read the Bible, in it's entirety, from cover to cover. Furthermore, I've decided to spend time actively reflecting about what I read, rather than just blazing through it without stopping to think. This blog is the forum I will use to record those thoughts after my daily reading. It is mostly a place for me to flush out my own ideas, but I also hope others will join me and share their own perspectives. I also hope others, who may not have the time to read the whole Bible in one summer themselves, might develop their own faith from the perspectives I provide.
This post is the first step of what will I hope will be a long and rewarding journey. I'm not certain where that journey will take me. I want to grow closer to God and deepen my understanding of his Word, but there's no specific knowledge that I'm searching for or belief on which I seek clarification. I don't know what impact this exercise will have on me, and I can't see where God will lead me with his word. I'm walking by faith, not by sight; but there's no better guide than the Bible.
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