the challenge of the bible

in 2006 i came up with an idea of how i could get myself to read through the Bible on a regular and consistent basis. this is much tougher than you would think for a guy who spent the first three weeks of his married life unknowingly ignoring his wife because he was so used to spending the majority of his free time reading. put another way, i am a book-a-holic. my idea of a good date with my wife before we got married was to go to starbucks, get a coffee and spend the next two hours browsing the bookstore.to be fair, i spent my formative years living in an isolated area with not much around. to be sure i spent a great deal of time outside exploring and playing, but when the weather was bad i had few entertainment choices. my mother instilled in me and my older sister a devout passion for literature - in fact all of my child hood pets somehow got named after tolkein characters.i say all of this to say that to this day i struggle mightily with making the time and giving the effort to read the Word of God. sure i can devour an asimov novel in a matter of days (if not a day depending on which one) or even get through war and peace in a few weeks. but the Bible sits as a dowager among princesses in my collection; always there - much more substantial; but not as flashy and easy as the other books that comprise my collection.honestly, many days i would rather pick up plato's republic; the confessions of st. augustine, or summa theologica rather than pick up my bible. that is wrong. and i suspect there are many of us out there that have the same problem.whether you are a bibliophile, hate reading, or find it difficult to focus - anyone who claims a faith in Christ must be compelled to seek out scripture. so why is it so hard?for many, a daily reading plan helps bring structure, for some it is the life journal method; for me, and many that i know - both of those fail. miss a day of reading and feel guilty for not doing it; miss a week and it is impossible to catch up. so what then?that is where this comes in. in 2006 i took it upon myself to launch "THE BIBLE CHALLENGE" it was a challenge to myself to read the bible over a one year period. long story short - it worked.now it is time to do it again. and i challenge you, or anyone who may to do the same. are you ready?