Bible-binging?

During the past year with more people staying home, the time people spent watching shows and movies on streaming services rose sharply. According to one news report I saw, one activity that increased the most was binge-watching. For those of you who don’t know, binge-watching means viewing a series of movies or episodes of a show one after the other at a single sitting or over several days in a row. There is a certain delight that people receive in finishing a set of movies or all the seasons of a show in a relatively short amount of time.

The whole idea of binge-watching got me to thinking about how we might apply the same principle to our reading of the Bible. Could we engage in Bible-binging, if you will, as part of our daily and weekly routines? There are many programs that offer a way to read the Bible every day for a year or two or three to complete the reading of the entire Old and New Testaments by the end. This can be a very rewarding and satisfying practice. But I am thinking more of just our general approach to Bible reading. Is it something that we set aside chunks of time for and that we are excited to take a deep dive into?

It should be, of course, but we can find a million and one reasons not to read our Bibles these days. But now is the time we need the Bible the most. The stories inside of God’s people through the ages are true life experiences of love, betrayal, reunion, suffering, triumph, learning, growing, and ultimately salvation in our Savior Jesus who provides us with a happy ending to our lives. Sounds a lot like the aspects of some shows we binge watch, doesn’t it? But the stories of the Bible can help us and guide us in our everyday lives more than any TV show can.

So why not try some Bible-binging this week and pick a book or a section of Scripture to read in blocks of time over a period of days? Let the Holy Spirit move you and inspire you to read the Bible with fresh eyes and with a new-found curiosity and joy in the words that our God is sharing with us and just waiting for us to read for the first time or again. Let the Bible-binging begin!