Balancing Life – Bible in 90 Days
Okay, so I started reading the Bible through in 90 days. Not only that but I decided I would do a little social experiment and broadcast it live via ustream.tv whenever I read. I also decided to create a group on youversion.com and add each day of reading as an event with all the scripture, a link to the live video, and even a poll question.
Most of the time when I decide to do something, I want to do it big. Sometimes that means I get big return for my invest. Sometimes it means I make big, often public, mistakes. More often than not, however, it just means that I spend a lot of time on something that is really good but not really necessary.
Take my Bible in 90 Days experiment as an example. It started with the desire to honor God and improve my commitment to spending time with Him everyday. I didn’t just want to read the Bible this year, I wanted to read it in 90 days! Then I took it a step further. What if I could convince other people to make that same commitment? So I blogged about it and made it public. What if everyone reading it in 90 days, did it all at the same time, whether just listening or actually reading, and could even interact with each other in real time as they read? What if I could even record the live stream to make it viewable to those who couldn’t make the live event? Wouldn’t that be cool? Of course it was!
But here’s what happened to me. I didn’t really count the cost. To read the Bible silently to myself in 90 days, requires between 35-45 minutes each day. To read it live online requires 50-60 minutes. That’s not too much of a difference right? Well, you also have to add in the 20-25 minute prep time required each day before I even go live. That’s a total of 70-85 minutes, fully double what it would take just to read it by myself. Not only that, what about the days I can’t fit it into my schedule or I’m off with my family? I’m tempted not to read at all because I keep telling myself that I’ll make it up. My participants may also feel the same temptation. If not, at the very least I’m still not meeting the expectations they now have because I established them myself. PLUS, every minute more I spend reading the Bible online is one minute more added to my work day and one minute less I’ll spend with my family.
So I have a choice to make. It’s not whether or not I’ll continue to read the Bible or even whether or not I’ll ever do something big again. No, it’s a simpler choice about whether or not this particular endeavor is worth it. To the handful of people who have been keeping up with me, maybe it is. I thank you for your participation. But unfortunately, the extra time it takes right now just isn’t worth the effort.
That’s one of the things we as leaders must all learn. In every ministry environment, in every business environment, some return simply insn’t worth the time and the investment. Oh, I’ll definitely use this technology in the future to lead online Bible studies. I’m just not going to do it right now.
So, as of today, the Bible in 90 Days experiment still exists. I’ve just decided to go back to paper and read for myself. Please continue to log into YouVersion.com for the reading plan. You can add it to your profile and keep up with your reading online if you so desire. If reading through the Bible in 90 Days has been good for you because you’re auditory and like to listen in, check out www.dailyaudiobible.com. You won’t cover the whole Bible in 90 days, but over the course of time, you will read through the entire Bible. You can sync it to your iPod or listen right on the website. Plus that guy does a much better job and has been doing it for a much longer time.
