His Word Together

Tag: Consistency

  • Reading on Vacation

    Reading on Vacation

    I’ve got a trip coming up with my kids, so I’ve been thinking about this myself.

    The easy answer is to just skip it for the week. Vacation is vacation. But I’ve done that before and it’s never just one week. You come back and the rhythm is gone and getting back into it takes longer than it should.

    The readings are short enough that this doesn’t have to be a problem. Twenty minutes or less on the days with passages, five minutes on the others. That fits into most vacation days without competing with anything else. Early in the morning before anyone’s up, or at the end of the night. It doesn’t need a desk or a quiet room. Just a few minutes and whatever you’re reading on.

    The Proverbs chapter takes about five minutes on its own. If that’s all you get on a busy day, that’s fine. It’s not nothing.

    The people who stay consistent through vacations aren’t doing anything complicated. They’re just not treating the trip as a reason to stop, and they’re not trying to maintain some elaborate routine either. They find a small window and use it.

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  • One Person

    One Person

    You probably know at least one person who has mentioned wanting to read the Bible more.

    Not in a dramatic way. Just in passing. Something like “I keep meaning to do that” or “I used to read it more.” It comes up and then it doesn’t go anywhere.

    That’s not a motivation problem. Most of those people are reasonably motivated. They just don’t have a simple structure to follow, and building one from scratch never quite makes it to the top of the list.

    You already found something that works. That’s the hard part. The easy part is sending a link.

    You don’t need to frame it or explain it. Just send it and let them look at it. They’ll either use it or they won’t. Either way you spent about ten seconds.

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  • Most Plans Punish You For Missing

    Most Plans Punish You For Missing

    Built-in catch-up days. Streak counters that reset. A schedule that assumes you never skip anything.

    Most Bible reading plans are designed for ideal conditions. Which means they work fine until life gets in the way, and then they don’t work at all.

    The problem isn’t missing a few days. The problem is what the plan does to you after you miss them. It shows you exactly how far behind you are. It implies you need to fix it before you can move forward. And somewhere between the math and the guilt, people just stop.

    This plan doesn’t do that.

    There are no streak counters here. No record of what you missed. If you set it down for a month and pick it back up today, nothing looks different. You just read today’s Proverbs and work through this week’s readings. That’s it.

    What you skipped isn’t gone. The plan runs on a yearly cycle. You’ll come back around to it.

    The goal was never perfect completion. It was staying in it long enough for repetition to do something. You can’t do that if the plan drops you every time real life shows up.

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  • Nobody Is Watching

    Nobody Is Watching

    Nobody knows if you read today.

    No accountability partner waiting on a check-in. No streak counter that resets when you miss a day. No group chat where someone will notice if you go quiet.

    It’s just you and the reading.

    Most people assume that’s a problem, that without some external pressure they won’t follow through. And maybe that’s true for some things. But I’ve watched the opposite play out enough times to think differently about it here.

    When you read because someone is watching, you’re performing. When nobody is watching, you’re just reading. Those are different experiences, and over time they produce different results.

    The habit that holds up over years isn’t the one built on accountability. It’s the one you do quietly, on your own, without anyone keeping score. That kind of habit doesn’t collapse when the accountability structure disappears, because it never depended on one.

    There’s no record here of what you’ve read or skipped. No one tracking your progress. Whether you’ve been consistent for months or you’re just picking it back up today, it looks the same.

    That’s not a flaw in the design.

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  • Got Behind? Don’t Get Discouraged. Just Get Going

    Got Behind? Don’t Get Discouraged. Just Get Going

    If you’ve gotten behind, it’s not a big deal.

    It happens. A few missed days turns into a week before you even think about it. Then you realize how far back you are and start thinking about catching up.

    That’s usually where people go wrong.

    If you’re only a couple of days behind, catching up might be fine. But once it stretches into weeks, it stops being simple. Now you’re looking at a pile instead of a habit, and it starts to feel like work.

    And when it feels like work, it’s easy to avoid.

    That’s why there aren’t any catch-up days built into this plan. You’re not expected to go back and fix anything.

    You just pick up where we are.

    Read today’s Proverbs. Follow this week’s readings. Keep moving.

    The goal isn’t to complete everything perfectly. It’s to stay in it long enough that it becomes normal.

    This plan repeats every year anyway. Anything you miss now will come back around, and when it does, it won’t be new.

    So don’t turn this into something heavier than it needs to be.

    If you’ve been out for a while, just step back in and keep going.

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  • There Is No Catch-Up

    There Is No Catch-Up

    If you’re behind, you’re not behind.

    There are no catch-up days built into this plan.
    That’s intentional.

    If you miss a week — or a month — you don’t go back and scramble to “fix it.”

    You rejoin the current week.

    That’s it.

    The goal isn’t perfect completion.
    The goal is long-term repetition.

    The plan resets every January.
    If you miss something this year, you’ll see it again.
    And again.
    And again.

    You are not graded.
    No one is tracking you.
    There are no streak counters.

    If you stopped reading yesterday, start again today.
    Just rejoin where we are.

    Keep reading.

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  • Spoiler Alert: The Last Word Is Amen

    Spoiler Alert: The Last Word Is Amen

    When I was in elementary school, we had to do book reports on books we checked out of the library.

    Yes, I’m old enough to remember when people read actual books.

    I remember one of my friends telling me that whenever he got a new book, he would read the last page first. That always struck me as odd, though I’ve since learned it’s more common than people admit.

    Kind of like reading the Bible.

    People who actually do it usually don’t make a big deal about it.
    And people who make a big deal about it often don’t do much reading.

    I thought about that this week because this Sunday marks the final readings of the year. We’ll finish Revelation. The last page.

    Amen.

    So if you haven’t signed up yet but have been thinking about it, this is actually a good moment to start. Read the ending, then start fresh in January.

    And if you’re not a “read the last page first” person, I’d still suggest not waiting until January to sign up. Life has a habit of getting in the way.

    Things you fully intend to do later have a way of slipping by.

    It doesn’t cost anything to join.

    So if you’re planning to start next year anyway, you might as well sign up now and remove the friction.

    Sign up here.

  • The best time to read the Bible

    The best time to read the Bible

    One thing people often wonder is whether there’s a “best” time of day to do the readings.

    In general, I don’t think the specific time matters much. What matters is that it actually gets done.

    That said, in practical terms, timing does seem to matter a little.

    Maybe not the same way for everyone, but my experience might be helpful.

    I’m one of those people who has to write a to-do list every day so things don’t slip through the cracks. Not everything on the list is priority one, and I don’t finish every item every day. I try to get the most pressing things done.

    Guess what almost never qualifies as “most pressing”?

    Reading the Bible.

    I can put it on the list. But once I’m in execute-the-list mode, there’s always more on there than there is time in the day. That’s partly by design. But it means anything I plan to “get around to” usually doesn’t.

    Because how often does a spare half hour just appear?

    Basically never.

    What works best for me is doing the readings right after I wake up. I’m usually up before everyone else, so it’s quiet. I haven’t opened my computer yet, so the real world hasn’t grabbed me. I pray first, then do the readings.

    If I’m reading on my phone, the only discipline required is not opening email or a browser before I’m done.

    You don’t have to do it first thing. Your mornings may look very different. The key, I think, is having a set time and sticking to it.

    As best you can.

    While writing this, I remembered that I read Proverbs this morning but got interrupted before finishing the other readings.

    It will slide by if you’re not intentional.

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