Bible Blitz

New Year's resolutions are a good thing.  Somehow, mine tend to solidify a week or so after New Year's, which kind of defeats the purpose.  A new year, a new start....unless of course, you're a little late.  Luckily for me, there is not one, but TWO New Year's Days in China: January 1st, and January 31st (this year).*  By the time we got to the second New Year's Eve, my list was ready.

My little house dressed up for New Year's

As usual, one of the items to make the list is 'Read the Bible regularly.  Teaching has taught me the value of clearly defined goals.  Knowing my propensity and love for intense projects and extremes, I came up with a plan I've affectionately dubbed, "The Bible Blitz."  In the month of February, I'll attempt to read the entire Bible, roughly 300+ chapters per week.

Disclaimer

This is not a good way to study the Bible.  It's important to take time to reflect, ponder and pray as you read.  My long-term goal is to build Bible-reading into a habitual part of my day.  I don't suggest reading this quickly.

Bible reading (like so much of life) is like coffee.  The sweetest, richest, most caffeinated coffee is cold brew, which soaks for a loooooong time.  French press is hot, and full bodies, and brews about 7-8 minutes.  The coffee is ground finer and finer for each method of brewing, until you reach the espresso stage.  It takes 13-20 seconds to pull two shots of espresso, the caffeinated equivalent of a cup of coffee.  Similarly, the richest and most rewarding way to study the Bible is when you take your time.  Sucking down several large mugs of espresso every day is a terrible way to live!  But a bit won't hurt.  One month of blitzing through giant cups of Biblical espresso.  Yes.  This is what's happening.

The Bible I brought to China was a translation recommended to me by one of my favorite professors, The New Jerusalem Bible.  This is my first time reading some of the apocrypha!**  As a protestant, I've been raised with a Bible that has 36 books in the Old Testament, and 27 books in the New Testament.  These new additions pose a few problems.

1. It messes up the books-of-the-Bible song I learned when I was 7.  I sing this song in my mind every time I look something up!  This also makes it difficult to know their relative position within the published text.
2. The books of the Bible aren't in chronological order.  Unless it's explicitly stated, I may not be able to place where in history the story is taking place, which is huge drawback.
3. I've been taught to doubt the authenticity of the apocrypha.  I will need to weigh this teaching carefully, or it may color my ability to accept the text well.  It's amazing how many church fathers debated the veracity of different portions of scripture.  Luther even doubted the canonicity of the Gospels!
4. I've never been taught what I "should learn" from these scriptures.  Frankly, I find this a little exciting!  For the first time, I'm coming to the Bible as an adult without preconceptions or memories of sermons, good and bad.  I get to experience what new Christians think and feel, and draw my own conclusions. (Which I will verify in March once I have time to research.)  It's going to be great!

I created a reading schedule based roughly on theme, chronology, and breaking up the books I find monotonous.***  The apocryphal books were scattered at random, a wild card or two for each week.  The plan ended up looking like this.

The first picture shows my weekly reading goals. The second pictures delineates exactly how many chapters I should read each day.  As per most Bible-reading plans, I decided to divvy up Psalms and Proverbs to get a little poetic goodness every day.

February will be a month of reading, praying, preparing for this semester and the upcoming transition coming this fall.  I am entirely aware that I'm likely to fail at this massive reading binge.  But even if I fail, I'll still be spending hours in the Bible.  I don't see a loss.



*My brother wished me a "Happy fake New Year's" that morning, which made me laugh!  Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, which I have a hard time wrapping my mind around.  Instead of being based on the earth's rotation around the sun, it's based on the moon's rotation around the earth. It doesn't align with the solar calendar, so it's hard for me to figure out.  Luckily there are cell phones apps for that kind of thing.  Take a look at this Lunar Calendar Description and this Moon Phase Calendar.
**Take the time to follow this link!
***All scripture is valuable.  Not all of it is interesting.  Look into your heart.  You know this is true.  If you disagree, you must have not read the entire pentateuch.

Day 17: Researched Whelmed

I've often heard and repeated the joke about being 'whelmed.'  If a person can be overwhelmed, and underwhelmed, then why can't someone just be whelmed?  The joke of course is that 'whelmed isn't a real word.*  And what would it mean anyways?

My search for work has led me to the definition of what it means to be 'whelmed.'  I know there are scads of opportunities for work out in the world, and that much of it can be discovered with a few clicks on my computer.  But how do I know if I'm viewing credible schools?  Maybe I've just discovered a good website.  How do I know if the country is a place I could spend a large chunk of time.  Do I guess?  Ideally I'd visit each place, but I don't have extracurricular funds for wise ventures like that.  I can do a ton of research, which could easily make me feel overwhelmed, but I can easily get frustrated, or underwhelmed, by the information that's missing from the websites of individual schools.  So here we get at the definition of whelmed: the knowledge that the resources you need exist, but you lack the information or experience needed to procure them.

I'm headed into the third week of my prayer month, and I feel like God is pointing me in toward one or two open doors, but I haven't yet diligently pursued other options.  I think God uses open doors as guides, but I don't want to lazily take the path of least resistance.  I don't want the echoes of 'What if...'  to follow me to my next job.  I want to sink my teeth into my next job, and I can't do that if there's a language barrier.  If I choose another international position, I'll have to invest time and effort into learning the language.**  Tonight I started researching individual schools in a few Eastern European countries, but I think I was getting the cart before the horse.

Here's the new plan:

1. Listen to a news reel in the country's indigenous language.
2. Listen to traditional music.
3. Learn about the country's history, read its news, and find out what's trending socially.

THE NEWS REEL.  When I first arrived in China, I had a difficult time adjusting to the sound of spoken Chinese.  I find it rather gutteral and accusatory.  My apologies if it's your native language, or if you find it entrancing.  My opinion is merely an opinion, and that's how it lands in my ears.  As a musician, it's difficult to be constantly surrounded by sounds that seem harsh and unyielding.  My current plan is really helpful because I associate the sound of the language with the country as I read about it.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC.  I was a musician before I became a teacher.  There are some parts of Chinese music that really appeal to me, and there are other forms of music that are difficult for me to engage with/reconcile to/understand/enjoy/tolerate - take your pic of descriptor as you listen to Exhibit A. (This piece is actually pretty easy to get into.)

HISTORY, NEWS, AND TRENDS.  I think these topics are pretty self explanatory.  Sometimes I find myself woefully ignorant about basic information, like current politicians, names of provinces and territories, and common expectations of foreigners.  I need to know the basics before I enter into another country long-term.

So far, this process has taught me that Albanian is too angular for me to listen to for more than a few minutes, and Georgian music sounds like Argentinian Folk sung in Arabic.  Not bad for a couple hours of internet time.***

• Please pray that I only give community input its due amount of import.  My goal this month is to listen for God's guidance, not the crowd's.  I need discernment.
• Please pray for health.  I got a hit of food poisoning this morning. That's never fun.
• Please pray that people will step up as prayer partners over the Thanksgiving holiday.
• Please pray for creative direction and possibilities, for the merging of ideas, and release of desire for things that aren't a part of the best design.  I enough ideas and inspirations for a hundred lifetimes, and sometimes that can be counterproductive to decision making.
• Please pray that the students I am supposed to teach will take a prominent position in my heart as I look ahead.

And health and health and health....food poisoning is just the worst thing created.  Ever.****

*Just kidding, it is.  I noticed my spellcheck wasn't angry, so I looked it up.  Apparently it's a verb that means 'to wheel around' or 'to wheedle out.'  And now you know the rest of the story.

**Thanks to a couple of blunt and discouraging teachers, I have an aversion toward learning languages.  One told me that I couldn't understand my classmate's appreciation for their native cultures, and another actually described my French as 'atrocious' and 'sterile.'  Now that I can evaluate these people through my teacher-lens, I can see that they themselves weren't very good teachers.  Even so, I have very little confidence when it comes to acquiring new languages.  I'm not accustomed to lacking confidence.  I don't handle it very well.

***I have further decided that the internet is a magical place that reveals the secrets of the universe.  Seriously, it's amazing that it can all fit into a cellphone.

****Besides heartbreak.