On New Year's Eve of 2023, I shared that my new years resolution for 2023 was to read the Bible. I had read a blog post by Ray Patrick showing a simple plan for it, and I was excited to do so. I was crossing off the passages of the plan, and I was hoping to send photocopies of it to Ray once I'd finished to thank him.
However, by the summer a combination of summer vacation and female rejection ground progress to a halt. This plan was designed to allow for catch-up time, but once you're behind, it's demotivating. I sporadically tried to continue, but by New Year's 2024, I hadn't mannaged to get halfway. I renewed my resolution, hoping to make 2024 my year. But, as I'm writing this, I haven't made meaningful progress since January.
Recently, I was doing some volunteer handyman work at a church, and during the dinner break, one of the guys—a relatively new convert to the Catholic Church—was telling us how he's been listening to the Bible in a Year podcast by Father Mike Schmitz. Since he's new to the church, this podcast is able to answer a lot of the why questions that I take for granted as a cradle Catholic. He works in the trades and can literally listen to this podcast the whole day. Talking with him, it dawned on me that I hadn't opened my bible in probably a month.
In 2023 when I started the paper bible plan, I told Ray. In April 2023, Ray gave me some advice that including something he found to help motivate me. It was a link to a tract by a pastor with a passage that stuck in my brain for over a year.
[N]ever allow a day of your lives to pass without reading at least a chapter of the Bible. Do this while living quietly in your father's house; do it when forced out into the world to breast its difficulties and struggle with its storms. Keep the blessed Bible by your side, and let its precious doctrines and precepts dwell in you richly in all wisdom. I shall expect you thus to become useful and honorable men, as well as sincere and devout Christians. Under the guidance of this Divine light, you will walk safely in the way.
As much as I would like to push through and finish my bible plan, It just isn't working for me. A mentor told me once that I don't have to blindly soldier on in times of spiritual dryness, but that I can change how I pray. I thought she was saying that I should have tea while I pray, but I see now that maybe this is how I ought to change my situation.
The zeal for the bible that I saw while working is something that I want. I am very aware that I have much room to grow in my spiritual life, and I definitely felt closer to God when I was reading the bible daily. Thinking about when I could routinely listen to this podcast, my mind immediatley went to the radio. I normally listen to the radio in the car. However, there are limited songs, and it starts to get repetitive. One song that has been getting plays lately includes the line "And I will f*** you like nothing matters". While I don't consider myself a prude, the radio in my car is ripe for substitution with the Bible.
Over the last whie, I have been listening to the Bible in a Year podcast. I have found it to be great, the structure of each episode is a few chapters of the Bible read aloud, and then Fr. Mike spends the remaining half of the episode explaing it. Providentially, each episode is about as long as one leg of my commute. This and the previous bible plan both started with Genesis, and I have found this podcast form to explain it better—likely due to guided commentary/reflection. The knowledge of a Catholic priest helps these discussions to dive deep into theology. This is a mature podcast, beginning with the Fall of Man in Genesis and very quickly looping in Job, to discuss the Problem of Evil. I appreciate the fact that it wasn't watered down to appeal to kids, since The Gospel is for everyone, not just the little children. Finally, Father Mike Schmitz has social media experience, and is engaging and fun to listen to.
I started listening to this podcast on a random day near the end of July. This is a great thing since my progress in this Bible podcast is uncoupled from the calendar. I am grateful for this, considering January first is the worst day to decide to make changes in your life.