Friend, can I speak honestly to you today?  I have been drifting, just drifting through life.  Have you ever felt life rushing by and you are moving in slow motion trying to catch up?  That is exactly what the past year has been like for me.  I tried many, many things to snap out of it.  I tried new eating programs and new workouts.  I tried new devotionals and new churches.  I tried burying myself in on-line games.  I tried shopping therapy.  (While fun, the final tallies are not!)  Nothing worked.

Toward the end of last year, our pastor gave a message on goals for the New Year.  Not resolutions.  Those last about as long as the piece of paper they are written on before it gets lost or the dog eats it.  No, I’m talking about goals that will give you something to reach for, even stretch out of your comfort zone for.  Goals that will change who you are and where you are going.  One of his suggestions was to read the Bible in a year.  Yeah, okay.  Been there, done that.  Truly!  I have made it through one or two times.  But most years, after about a month (or a week) I get behind and give up.  Besides I ALWAYS have one or two or three devotionals that I’m reading.  That’s good, right?

Well, over the course of the next few days, I decided to take a look at some new reading plans.  I just could not face five or six chapters a day from Leviticus or Isaiah.  Not that there’s anything wrong with those books of the Bible, or any others for that matter.  It’s just me.  I have this thing called attention deficit disorder.  Not clinically diagnosed, mind you.  But believe me, I have it.  Without extreme concentration, my mind wonders off on tangents at the slightest provocation.  I joke with my boys that I “wonder as I wander.”  Sometimes literally!  But as J.R.R. Tolkien said “Not all who wander are lost.”

Anyway, I digress.  After searching through many choices on the You Version Bible app, I found one called “JUST JOY!”  The author writes:  “As you work through the Just Joy! Daily Bible Reading Strategy, my hope is that you will spend rich time in the Bible every day and that you will be changed by its power and by its promises!”  Ummhmm.  Joy is not the first word that came to mind when contemplating reading through the entire Bible.  Don’t get me wrong.  I KNOW the power of God’s word to change lives and save souls.  There are just so many dry parts…  Sighing, I clicked on “Start Plan.”  And just like that I set a goal to read the Bible every day, and the entire Bible in a year.

Fast-forward two months.  Can I just say “Yay, God!?!”  As I dutifully set out on this journey, to my surprise I discovered that this reading plan IS different and it IS a joy for my ADD self.  Each day I read from the Old and New Testaments, as well as readings in a Gospel and from the Psalms. Every other month, I read the Book of Proverbs (there’s a chapter for each day of the month).  What started out as a chore has become something I look forward to every day.  I’ve gotten behind by a day, even two, a couple of times, but I always have a DESIRE to sit down and read again.  I can honestly say that in my 52 years I have never felt this level of connection with the entirety of God’s Word.

I admit that at first I felt like I needed to do a devotional, too.  How much would I really get out of only reading the Bible?  Before long, all the devotionals I’ve ever done (and I have some awesome ones on my shelves) paled in comparison to reading God’s own instruction manual.  I love my Kindle, because I can highlight in it just like I do in my own Bible.  I find myself daily highlighting two, three or more verses that leap off the page at me.  I don’t need a devotional, as wonderful as they are, to hear God speaking to me.  For the first time in my life, I understand.  God’s Word truly changes us.  We cannot read it intently and purposely without being changed.

That said, there have been some interesting things happening in my life.  I’m quite certain I’ve never before experienced spiritual attacks such as I have since beginning “Just Joy!”  Addictions that I had long-since put behind me reared their ugly heads.  Not just one, but several.  I began to truly understand the power of the Word of God, and that the enemy will do anything to keep me from reading it.  I’d always heard the saying “The devil doesn’t care how much you talk about praying as long as you don’t actually pray.”  Ditto for reading the Bible.  Distractions would come from every direction — the internet, the phone, the mail, the battery dying on my Kindle.  You name, it’s happened.  Finally, I turned off the wireless internet on my Kindle.  Goodbye Facebook and e-mail.  I put my cell phone in the dining room so I would not be tempted to check notifications.  I pressed on…

And then, slowly, changes began to occur.  Changes that I can only attribute to God.  Changes that have happened, I believe, only because of my faithfulness in attempting to read His Word each day.  I’ve found Joy! in making my cup of tea and settling into the recliner with just my Bible app on my Kindle.  I found Joy! in the stories of the Old and New Testaments that now, reading them a chapter at a time, have really started to solidify in my mind.  I found Joy! in the Psalms and Proverbs — and true wisdom for my days, as well.

But the biggest change is in me.  I’m no longer drifting — thank God!  I’ve found purpose and meaning again.  I’m excited for each new day and what’s ahead.  I’m working out, eating less and focusing better.  Sounds like a magic pill, doesn’t it?  Only there’s no magic involved.  Just the power of the Holy Spirit to work in this girl’s life, and make it better than it’s ever been.  I’ll be the first to admit that this is not my favorite time of year.  Tax season, and all that entails for our family, is perhaps the last place I would ever have expected to find joy.  And yet, I have.  In good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over!