This season, I’ve embarked on something I’ve never done before. I am the first to tout the benefits of a routine. I think routine is important, nay- essential. We’ve all seen the articles citing the benefits of creating patterns and predictability in our lives. Where would we be without routine when motivation fails and daily tasks beckon us with unfinished fervor? There seems to be just as many articles campaigning for the destruction of routine and advocating spontaneity as it’s replacement. For better or worse, I tend to side (at least in habit) with the former camp. I love routine! Like a comfortable sweater that’s seen 10+ seasons, I’ll wear it like a security blanket. In actuality, while I’d rather cling to the familiar, I think the healthiest approach is probably a combination of the two, let’s have habits that keep us anchored and flexibility for change when circumstances call for it. This leads me to this season and a big change I was reluctant to make, even temporarily.
I’ve had the same Bible since I was thirteen years old. Its pages bare the highlights of teenage me, reading passages for the first time, in awe of God’s word. I have dates scribbled next to many of them. Teenage me used a lime green gel pen (and didn’t always get that underline straight!). The underline straightened and shifted to a ballpoint pen in my later teens and twenties. Reading through the Psalms especially, there are highlights and dates from almost every season of my life. For example, Psalm 46 has passages underlined from 2007, then I circled the entire passage in 2021. The pages are precious to me, first of all because it is God’s Word! Second, reading any book in my Bible is a memory preserved of time I’ve spent with Jesus. The hard times, the prayers, the joy, the learning- it’s all there in dates and tiny notes in the margins. For my 30th birthday my husband had it re-bound and I was delighted to have it preserved for many more years of study!
All this being said, you can imagine my concern one day when I was reading my Bible and something was brought to my attention. I don’t remember the specific passage I was in, but as I was reading my eyes were continually drawn to the portions I had highlighted. I turned the page, continuing to read, and again- my eyes darted to the passage I’d underlined. While I read chapters in their entirety, I was paying more attention to the highlights. For the first time, I felt like the greater context was harder to grasp because (consciously or unconsciously) the majority of my stops for reflection were around the passages I’d highlighted before. Now, I want to take a moment and say clearly: I don’t think highlighting scripture is a bad thing! It’s good to remember and reflect on truth you’ve learned and lessons that have previously made an impact! I have no problem with this concept and I wouldn’t trade my personal Bible for anything. Much like a stone of remembrance in the Old Testament, I can stop and remember. So, no hate here for the practice of keeping dates and highlights in a Bible!
Going back to the experience, in this particular time of reading, I was confused! I felt like the Lord was moving my heart to read the New Testament on fresh pages- no highlights and no dates. I needed to consume scripture without the previous experience pointing my eyes where to look, telling my feet where to stop, and suggesting where my mind should reflect. At first, I thought my study in the ABP version on my phone was sufficient (Apostolic Bible Polyglot; a Koine Greek text with English listed below the Greek). There’s no way to highlight passages there- bingo! While its use is part of my study, I realized it’s also important to me to have times of reading in my native language. As the prompting to make this shift for a season did not subside, I settled on a small New Testament sitting on our living room bookshelf. It was a crisp paperback with larger font and thin pages. Never been read before, not a single highlight in sight! And I started reading.
There’s a peace that comes when following the leading of the Holy Spirit. I have enjoyed this new adventure in scripture in ways that are hard to put into words. I’ve found myself lingering in passages I haven’t reflected deeply on before. Unmarked pages have allowed me to turn down distraction and really listen to the words on the page. In place of highlights, I’ve compiled a list of verses I’d like to commit to memory. Most of the verses on the list so far are not underlined in my personal Bible!
The change has been a wonderful one. I am savoring the season in which God is using this method to guide me through his word. I have no doubt in the future, I’ll return to reading from my old Bible. It’s exciting to see how different seasons of my journey with the Lord have come with different ways of studying his word. There’ve been years where I felt such an urgency to read the Bible cover to cover, other times I’ve been prompted to study passages or single books, and still other times when the ABP is my main method of study. This season, I’m walking with the Lord through the new testament, a copy with unmarked pages.
I want to encourage you, that in whatever season you find yourself, the Lord is more than faithful to put exactly what you need to grow on your heart. You may need to seek his face for that next step, or he may place it directly in your path! I know for a fact, that if you are unsure what to read or study from God’s word this season, he is gracious and responsive to the questions of his children. Ask him what he would have you do in your study time- you might just find yourself reading a new copy of the New Testament or perhaps it will be a study of a passage you’ve highlighted multiple times in the past. No matter the direction the Lord leads, my prayer for myself and those reading this is the same as the encouragement to the church from the apostle Peter: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18
