Notes are Hard

At the beginning of this month, I started using The One Year Chronological Bible to read through the Bible this year. It's New Living Translation, and I've been enjoying it. [It also comes in other translations.] As often happens with me, what started as a simple decision has evolved into something larger. New insights sparked by this translations have led me to compare the reading in this translation -- NIV, NRSV, and ESV. Now that I've started the book of Job, I've added The Message and Amplified versions. Then I decided to pull out an undergraduate Old Testament Survey text to read alongside.

It's been an INCREDIBLE journey. [Yes, I realize it's only been 25 days.] The readings inspired me to write a sermon series for January on some of the Genesis stories that we've largely relegated to children's Sunday school. I planned to share my thoughts from my devotional time here on the blog, and shared this plan with several friends and my churches. As of now, I haven't done so. It was harder than I expected. Why?

Well, writing all my thoughts down coherently is HARD. I don't really journal. It's a left over from childhood, when the privacy of my diary was violated and I was punished for something written there -- a thought expressed, not an action committed. So many of these thoughts aren't written down. They're floating around in my head.

Even the ones that make their way into my sermons aren't available to just cut-and-paste into publishable form. You see, I don't preach from a manuscript. I tried, but preaching isn't reading a speech. It's more dynamic and fluid than that. I often lost my place in the manuscript. Since it wouldn't be delivered as written, I stopped bothering. Using more of an outline works better for me. They're not even really outlines; they're not that organized. Just phrases and references, so I don't forget a verse that went with that point, or a story to illustrate it, or even the point itself.

Please don't think that those notes don't reflect time and research. In fact, I am able to spend MORE in that phase of the process when I don't spend it in the writing and editing. Though some would insist on the benefits to be gained from the discipline of a manuscript, I think my sermons are better, stronger, with more research and prayer, and less grammar and editing.

In order to share those notes here, in written form, I then need to do some of that grammar and editing. Some would call that lazy. I would say that I'm trying to be true to my New Year's commitment to SLOW DOWN. Frankly, I wasn't sure anyone would really notice or mind if I didn't. Yet, enough of you have "reminded" me that guilt over not "keeping my word" has kicked in. I will be rectifying this situation and starting my devotional posts shortly.