Some years ago, I asked a very precious prayer warrior and mentor of mine if he ever “plateaued” in his spiritual life. Did his “quiet time” become more duty than devotion? His answer surprised me. He said “Yes” and stated that he believed the Lord sometimes ALLOWED those times of dearth or desert to create thirst so that we might seek Him more. Then I asked him what he did to dislodge himself from this spiritual mesa. Again, his answer surprised! “I write the Scripture”
Write the Scripture.
Whoa! So simple, yet profound! Why had I not thought of that!?! My friend explained that he would take a small book like 2nd John or a Psalm or a shorter passage and write the Word from his study Bible. He also instructed that most could not write quickly, so if one stayed mentally engaged with what they were writing, it would be sort of a slow meditation of the passage.
I could not wait to start! Initially I did as he suggested. I wrote some smaller books or passages. However, like many spiritual pursuits, that just created more hunger. Eventually I felt as if the Lord wanted me to write the whole Bible!
[DISCLAIMER: Please do not misunderstand the rest of what I am about to tell you. I am not “Super Christian” because I wrote the entire Bible. Nor am I necessarily suggesting every Christian should do this. I just convey a very special adventure that I was honored to complete.]
After buying some nice journals, I started my journey on September 14, 2001. You remember what happened three days earlier on 9/11. This was my 45th birthday. I wrote Genesis 1:1-14. The next day about the same number of verses. Soon I realized I would not have that much time each day. So eventually, I evolved to 10 verses a day. In the NASB there are 31,102 verses. Writing 10 verses/day makes it easy to know how long it would take. Just move the decimal.
3,110.2 days. A couple of weeks longer than 8.5 years.
I cannot begin to tell you how beneficial this “calling” was. To date (and I am almost 64 years old), this was my most special, enjoyable, challenging, captivating, convicting and rewarding discipline. Try it the next time you experience biblical boredom. But, whether you hear my story and start writing, or never try, Psalm 1:2-3 is true! The blessed person’s “…delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.”
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