“What if one year in one book allowed one story to shape your one life?”

ONE Year.

Time flies. Time stands still. We experience the paradox of time fleeting and crawling all at once. And, along the way, a lot happens in one year. Three hundred and sixty-five days bring four seasons, two semesters, weeks of work, sports seasons, music lessons, and several holidays. What if this one year was also seasoned with intentional attention to Scripture’s story? And, what if, in this one year, through immersing yourself in Scripture, you became more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-mastered? Less anxious, less angry, less afraid?

ONE Book.

The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, which Christians refer to as the Old Testament and New Testament, comprise a collection of 66 books written over 1,500 years, spanning 40 generations, and authored by more than 40 writers. These authors emerged from various walks of life—kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, priests, statesmen, and scholars. The Bible was written in approximately 10 countries across 3 continents. Moses wrote in the wilderness, Jeremiah in a dungeon, Daniel on a hillside and in a palace, Paul inside a prison, Luke while traveling, John on the isle of Patmos, and others in the rigors of a military campaign. Some wrote from the heights of joy, while others from the depths of sorrow. The Scriptures were written in 3 languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Yet, the biblical authors spoke with harmony and continuity from Genesis through Revelation. This is one unfolding story… 

ONE Story.

Stories shape us. We inhabit them. They inhabit us. Stories narrate our lives. We narrate our lives with stories. For instance, how do we tell our story about our family of origin? How does that story mold us? When it comes to our career or calling, what story do we inhabit, and how does this form us? We have stories that shape us as parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles. The Story of Scripture is a story we can find ourselves in. It is a story with the power and potential to shape every story we indwell and that indwells us. It is a story about God’s creativity and love, and about our significance and purpose. And God invites us to step into this story.

ONE Life.

Before iPhones and Google Photos, there were large books with sticky paper and cellophane. These photo albums became the organizational structures of the family story. Family photographs were labeled and dated, appearing in chronological order in the album. Yet, over the years, random snapshots would find their way into the pages of a book, under the refrigerator, or behind the couch. Occasionally, you stumble upon one of these singular pictures, extracted from the linear analog of the family story. And looking at the dislocated picture is disorienting: Wait, was that in Orlando or Atlanta or San Francisco? Are the glasses I am wearing two-pairs-ago or four-pairs-ago? Is that a baby picture of my oldest daughter, or is it my youngest daughter? Or is it my middle daughter? Bafflement. Bewilderment. Confusion.

And, we can live our lives this way, as if they were a stream of discrete, disconnected experiences. We flit and float from one thing to the next, one event to the next, one job to the next, one relationship to the next.

What if, in this next one year, the one story in this one book, the Bible, could ground and arrange our one life? What if the Scriptures offered us a grand story we could find ourselves in? What if this story offered coherence instead of chaos, connection instead of loneliness, hope instead of despair? What if this grand story could define us in a way that would develop us into the humans we were intended to be? What if it could remind us who we are, where we have come from, what we are doing, and where we are going? What if it could make sense of our prior experiences, significant relationships, meaningful events, failures and wounds, triumphs and loves, future hopes and aspirations?