I Am a Hypocrite (and so I'm setting a blog intention)

I've been thinking about how much I'm a hypocrite when it comes to the Bible.  I'm a seminary-educated Christian who professes to love the Bible.  I enjoyed my NT and OT classes and would gladly take them again.  I take the Bible seriously and hate it when people quote verses out of context or without considering the culture in which it was written or the general scope and progression of the whole Bible.  I read and listen to sermons regularly (by choice).  I read books that reference and exposit the Bible.  I want my children to receive a formational Biblical education (as opposed to just memorizing Bible points).  I believe the Bible is a beautiful, inspired (and inspiring) work that is foundational for my faith.  And yet I hardly read it.

I used to.  As a teenager, I was zealous about reading every day and read all the way through at least once, all the begats included!  As an adult, I've gone through periods of regular reading, but they rarely stick for long.  Mostly I read what needs to be read for the Sunday School lesson I'm teaching a group of kids.  And when I'm not teaching, I'm likely not reading.  Except for whatever is included in a sermon or other reading material.

I seek out sermons and articles and books, and yet I don't read the source material!  I'm not sure exactly why.  How hard is it to read just a chapter a day?  Mostly, I think it's because sermons and articles and books do the background work for me.  They make Scripture come alive in a way that's harder for me to experience on my own without a stack of commentaries.  There's so much history I don't remember.  So much tradition I don't know.  So much literary analysis I can't do.

I'm not a good literature reader.  It's the science major in me, I suppose.  I was always a little baffled by the connections and symbols and themes my English teachers would find in our required reading.  I was good at writing papers about those things, but not good at seeing them on my own.  Even in seminary, I could write good papers, but mostly I was just compiling others' work rather than coming up with anything inspiring or insightful on my own.  I remember being amazed at a friend's OT expository paper - she didn't use a single source but wrote 10 pages of beautiful, insightful stuff that came all from her own reading.  I was envious.  Still am. 

But just because I'm not a good literary critic or a particularly insightful reader doesn't mean I shouldn't pick up my own Scripture.  And so I'm setting a blog intention.  Not a resolution - an intention.  Resolution seems too scary and restrictive and bound-to-be-broken.  Intention seems to offer a little more freedom and grace in failure.  Because I'm sure I'll fail at some point.  But hopefully I'll jump back on that intention rather than be completely defeated by it.  So here it is:

I intend to daily read one chapter of Mark and blog my response to it.  Sometimes my response may be little more than a sentence.  My response might be passionate or it might be apathetic.  I'm trying not to place too many expectations on this (for instance, expecting that I'll suddenly see something I've never seen or feel some great passion or commit to some great discipline).  I just want to be better about aligning my belief (that the Bible is way important to a bright life of faith) to my action (actually reading it).  So here's hoping the blogosphere will help me stick to my intention!