Today's Energy

I guess I was about 10 when a new kid came visiting in our neighborhood.  My buddies and I were riding our bikes past a house with no kids when we saw a kid in the yard.  He was an outgoing kid, quite boisterous and quickly irritating.  He was visiting at a house that had a ditch that we loved to jump.  Therefore, we are jumping ditches and talking politics (or whatever 10 year old boys talked about before modern technologies).  He told us he could jump better than we could (he didn't have a bike with him), he was smarter than us (he at least had a smarter mouth) and he was more daring than us (da,da,da,da, da...).  Then he said (and I don't remember how it came up) that he had read the Bible through 3 or 4 times.   I told him he had not, for I knew that a 10 year old (or anyone else, as far as that goes) would have to have more fortitude than he had to get through Leviticus.   We never settled the issue and I don't guess I ever saw or played with him again.  I do know that on many occasions I have thought about his claim.  I still don't believe it, nor did I believe much of what he said.   I am not saying it is not possible.  I am sure some could do it at that age, but probably not very productively.   That is what got me that day.    Even as a 10 year old, I thought, "Well, it sure doesn't show that you have read it through."
I have seen it many times since.   I have heard and seen many people claim to read the Bible for hours or over and over again, but too often, the evidence of such depth is not evident in their lives.    I find myself these days referring anyone that has trouble in their lives to reading a plan like this one (www.lifejournal.cc), finding the verse of the day and letting it apply to their lives.  To read great amounts and never let them sink is useless.  To read and let it stick is spiritual lifeblood.  James puts it this way:  ²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.-- James 1:22-25 
Don't get so lost in consumption that you forget to taste what you are consuming.  When I was a kid, they wanted us to rest a minute after eating before we played or especially before we swam.  We need to do that when we consume the Word.  Take it in.... let it digest.....then go run....you will have a lot more energy for the day.  Enjoy His Lead today!