Jesus Follower · Husband · Father · Writer · Learner
I plan to read 32 books this year. Far less than the 81 I read last year, but I want to slow down and absorb as much as I can.
For 2021, I’m going back to the basics.
Instead of constantly trying to read all I can — reading every minute I have free and listening to audiobooks at 2x the speed — I’m going to re-read some classics I haven’t opened in a while.
We need to stop holding certain values as “Christian” values that simply aren’t. I’m a Jesus Follower for sure, but I’m not even sure I want to be associated with the word “Christian” anymore. We need to understand the difference between Christian and culture — especially the American, conservative culture. We simply need to understand the difference between Christian and conservative. Maybe we should all just adopt the term “Jesus Follower” and try to live like Jesus, not merely conservatively.
My premise here is that I think if Jesus came today, instead of 2,000 years ago, He would’ve had a bone to pick with religious leaders, as he did when He came. Therefore, I think He would cuss to show religious people how often they’re “majoring on the minors.” I don’t think cussing is the only example, but it’s a prominent one in today’s society.
I’ve always been interested in conspiracy theories.
Whether it’s, “we never landed on the moon,” or “9/11 was an inside job,” or “the flat earth society,” you have to admit it’s at least interesting.
I’ve always liked when people went against what “we” consider normal.
And we shouldn’t dismiss someone as crazy because they think differently.
Sure, many of the theories, if not most, are crazy.
But that’s exactly my point. We like to immediately label them as crazy.
That immediately stops our own critical thinking.
So, let me share something I’ve shared with a lot of people. When I say this, I’m being only slightly facetious.
Well the first quarter went great in many areas of my life, like finishing writing two manuscripts for books.
I realized a couple weeks into this isolation that I wasn’t reading as much as I should be. So I started. Honestly, I’ve read four of these books in the last few days. I can do way more in Q2.
It didn’t go so well for reading.
I planned to read 20 books. I read six.
These are my reading goals for Q1 (quarter 1 of 2020)…
I always start with the Bible. I just finished the year-long Bible Project plan, which was amazing. There are video intros to each book. Now I’m starting a deeper study into the new Testament. This study will go through one chapter a day, and it will remain within the New Testament. It will take all of 2020.
As far as last year’s study, I learned a few things. For one, I read 73 books. I’m pretty happy about that. I was able to find—in many ways and forms—a lot of wasted time to fill with something productive.
I also learned that I can stick to my goals better if I continue to do what I’ve done in the past and set quarterly goals. A year projection is nice, but not always the most effective. Either way, here’s what happened in 2019…
This is going to be brief. I can’t possibly cover such complex questions in one article, nor am I qualified to do so. I just wanted to touch on a reoccurring topic that has been surrounding me lately. I’ve been in multiple conversations lately about the issue of God answering prayers and everything happening “for a reason.”
