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This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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January 4, 2022 | Leave a Comment

Please define “daily”

It’s often said that followers of Jesus should be reading the Bible daily. Our Children’s Minister said it to our kids just this past Sunday. I nodded in agreement. Yes, daily. Bible. Yes.

Well, maybe.

The Word of God is indeed our lifeblood. It tells our Story and draws the path for us to walk as we follow our Savior. To know the Word is to trust the Word and love the Word. Yes. Definitely.

But “daily”? There’s the rub, as Hamlet said.

The hope of daily reading is appropriate. It’s also discouraging to expect. Here’s why–

First, the expectation of daily reading lends itself to verse-ing the Bible. Verse-ing is my word, and it means glancing at a single, isolated verse as we scroll Instagram (or Facebook, TikTok, that little calendar on your desk, whatever).

Scroll. Glance. Bam. “I’ve done my Bible reading for the day!”

No, actually, you haven’t. You’ve taken six to seven words out of a living document of thousands of words, and you’ve made them a justification for everything you’re already planning to do and think and say. Verse-ing distorts the Bible.

“But, if I’m supposed to read the Bible daily, is a verse a day better than nothing?”

Arguably, yes, if it leads you to deeper reading, but it’s simply not enough. Reading must be more. It must encompass whole chapters, over time, repeatedly, as come to understand our own stories as part of God’s story of redemption and grace. It doesn’t happen on Instagram.

“Okay, fine. I’ll read whole chapters a day…but, even when I’m working double shifts? Even on the 4th of July at the lake? Even when I’m sick in bed?”

The second reason why the expectation of daily Bible reading is tough to expect is because it’s just tough. You make a commitment. You grab a Bible and spend the 15-20 minutes a day in the one-year Bible. For a few days, anyway. But, wow, you miss a day. Or two. Or three. Suddenly, you’re behind. Really behind. It’s March 2. Your bookmark is still on January 24, and you give up. A real commitment to reading the Bible as it’s intended becomes a lesson in futility and frustration, and you’re not in the Word at all anymore.

“So, what’s worse? Verse-ing? Or setting myself up for failure?”

It’s a false choice. There are other ways. Followers of Jesus have managed for a very long time to inhale the Word of God without forsaking other commitments (or getting up at 3 a.m.).

Here’s my suggestion:

Commit to a long term reading (or listening) plan. A chapter or two a day. When you miss a day (drumroll please), skip the reading for the day. Yes, that’s what I wrote. Skip it. If you’re committed to reading for the long haul (i.e. the rest of your life), you’re going to come back to it next year. More importantly, you’re a whole lot less likely to get frustrated and give up altogether. 

Just keep going.

I’m on Year 3 with my One Year Bible. I circle and mark and underline with a different colored pen every year, so I know that I missed most of the flood story last year. No blue ink underlining anywhere for about four chapters. But this year, I did read it. Have you ever noticed how long the ark is stuck on top of Mt. Ararat before the flood actually dries up? “The twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth” (Genesis 8:14)? That’s a whole lot of time tottering at the top of a mountain, but Noah and his people persist. It’s a lesson in patience if I ever read one. I missed it last year, but this year I didn’t.

More to the point, I didn’t give up last year when I missed those four days. I kept going, reading most days but not every day, and I discovered all over again how God was working out grace over all of creation and history. It’s such a good story. Really.

Bible, Discipleship, Expectation, Time, Uncategorized Tagged: Daily Bible reading, Genesis 8


November 24, 2021 | Leave a Comment

Thanksgivings Past

I’m remembering Thanksgivings Past on this Thanksgiving Eve.

My husband’s family came to town in 2004, and I was the cook. I wanted everything to be perfect-perfect-perfect. It was disturbing. I was disturbing.

I did the whole maniac Thanksgiving routine. I got up at some wee hour to put the turkey in. I fixed an elaborate breakfast. I had the rest of the day timed out, when to put the pies in, the stuffing, the green bean casserole, all with military precision, but the stupid bird would not cooperate. We ended up eating an hour later than I’d planned, and I was furious.

By the time we sat down to eat I was so exhausted that I couldn’t enjoy the meal. All I have to show for it all is a photo I took of a perfectly set table.

My perfect table, circa 2004

How ironic. It’s supposed to be a day of Thanksgiving, remembering all of God’s gifts and basking in the knowledge of God’s love in giving those gifts, but I got stuck thinking that I had to manufacture the warm feelings. I convinced myself that it was all about what I had to accomplish and not about what God had already accomplished for me.

I saw a piece last night on the evening news about the growing number of friendsgivings that millennials are celebrating. We’re free to be ourselves, they said when interviewed. There’s not all the expectation.

What if we all gave up our overwrought expectations of Thanksgiving and just enjoyed the day? What if we all simply stopped long to bask in the knowledge of God’s love and provision, even in—especially—in the hard times? What if we all just enjoyed ourselves a little bit more?

You know, the best Thanksgiving I remember as a child was the year after my dad lost both his jobs. It was 1979. Somehow still, we ended up collecting every stray person from our neighborhood. Twenty-two people came over for dinner, and we didn’t have a big house. We certainly didn’t have a space at the table for 22 people, so 10 of us ate at the dining room table, and the other 12 people ate off a ping pong table that my dad set up in the living room. My sister was getting over a bad break up and invited the first cowboy she could find. He got drunk on my father’s Blue Nun table wine and tried to play hopscotch in the front yard with me. He was fine until he leaned over to pick up the stone in the third square. He fell over. I won. My sister drove him home and never saw him again.

For that free Grace bringing us past great risks
& thro’ great griefs surviving to this feast
sober & still, with the children unborn and born,
among brave friends, Lord, we stand again in debt
and find ourselves in the glad position: Gratitude.

(John Berryman, from “A Minnesota Thanksgiving”)

Expectation, God, Gratitude, Parenting, Uncategorized Tagged: Friendsgiving, joy, table settings, thanksgiving


May 31, 2021 | 2 Comments

How I almost died; or How I wanted to die; or How I prayed to Jesus to deliver me home (in whatever way He saw fit)

Disclaimer: This is not a devotional. There’s no moral to the story, unless you wish to find one here. It’s simply a cautionary tale about middle age and a long trail.

The Lake of the Clouds Loop trail begins at the end of a road leading out of Westcliffe, Colorado. My husband and I arrived to hike it—or at least (we thought) the first few miles of it—on May 29. It was our 28th anniversary.

The full distance of the trail is about 12 miles. It reaches a series of three small lakes at about 11,500 feet. Ambitious, yes, but–

Believe me when I tell you that I did not expect to hike past the first 2 to 3 miles. There’d been snow recently, and I fully anticipated having to turn back early. This was the first of several poor judgments. I mean, really bad judgments. I underestimated my tenacity (or is that stubbornness?), and we ultimately traveled 11 miles of trail. It was awful. [Read more…]

Hiking, Uncategorized Tagged: anniversary, bad decisions, Sangre de Cristo Mountains


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This is the day that
the Lord has made;
let us rejoice
and be glad in it.

– Psalm 118:24
Rev. Dr. MJ Romano

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The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8:6
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