Do Hard Things and a Bible Reading Challenge

Last week I was working on a sermon about stopping running away from doing tough things, and one place of inspiration for the message was Brett and Alex Harris' book Do Hard Things (incidentally, if you are a teenager or parent (or grandparent) of a teenager or preteen, this ought to be required reading). I checked out Alex and Brett's website (the rebelution) I noticed they had a forum there.  I didn't register or anything, but I glanced at it, and I was struck by a thread there.

Some people there decided to read the Bible through in its entirety... during Christmas break... again.  Yes, I said again.  The person who posed the idea was planning to do it again.  She had done it before.

Now, I've read through the Bible in a year. I've read through the Bible chronologically.  I've read (almost all of) the Bible devotionally or for study (yes, even Leviticus).  But not in such a short time.

Yet as I was running and listening to a sermon and thinking about hard things and about the message I was getting ready to deliver, I thought, "What hard thing am I supposed to do?" and the answer came pretty quickly.  I should read the Bible in its entirety, during Lent.

For you who aren't familiar with the Christian liturgical year, Lent is the 40 day period (not counting Sundays) before Easter, starting on Ash Wednesday. It's a time when we focus on Christ and repentance, often by "giving something up for Lent" (fasting) and/or "taking something up for Lent" (adding another spiritual discipline).  I decided to "take something up" - namely Bible reading.

There are 1189 chapters in the Bible, and 40 days in Lent (Sundays will be days off), meaning each day I'll will need to read 30 chapters (and then the last couple of days will be a little lighter).

Being foolhardy and not necessarily thinking things out, I announced to the congregation at church that I would be doing this.  Both services.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of accountability.

So I decided, if I'm going to be that accountable, I'd might as well make a facebook group, too.  That way maybe some other people could join me in this challenge.  So I did.  You can find it here.  If you are interested, check out the facebook page - there's a little "join this group" link on the left side of the page (under the picture of the Bible).  I'll shortly be posting the reading plan I'll be using.