Introducing: Highlights, Underlines, & Notes: A Post Series

My trusty old NIV Bible

When I was growing up, my family did not darken the door of a church very often, but I attended a lot of Vacation Bible School programs on my own. For my formative years, I lugged the family Bible, a Good News Translation with odd stick-figure pictures, to the various Methodist, Lutheran, and Mennonite Sunday School classrooms and VBS programs I attended, while living in the small town of Kalona, Iowa. Finally frustrated with trying to "follow along" at one particular VBS that used a different translation of scripture, I finally convinced my mom to take me to the local Christian bookstore. There, the proprietor (a rather gruff, elderly Mennonite woman named Katie Yoder) helped me pick out a Bible of my very own. I took it home and wrote my name in it when I was 13-1/2 years + 3 days old. 

"Well, that's rather precise," you say with a slight eye roll.

Indeed. But you can't compliment my memory for that precision, because... I cheated. On the inside of the front cover of the aforementioned and above-pictured Bible, the date (June 18, 1986) is written in my youthful handwriting, right under my maiden name (I later added my married name further down the page in case it got lost) and "age 13 1/2" (the half was very important all those years ago!)

It's brown, it's old, and the spine is pretty loosey-goosey, but although I own many other Bibles in many versions, it's the one I'm most likely to turn to when I'm at home. This favorite book is an NIV Bible, published by Zondervan Bible Publishers of Grand Rapids Michigan, and it's been highlighted, underlined, notated, spilled on, sticky-noted, dropped, shoved in bags, and otherwise abused over the past 27ish years. But it's also been cried upon, rejoiced over, and the occasional precious note from one of my kids can be found tucked in here or there. 

The other night, as I was flipping through its thin, worn, and colorful pages, I had an idea:

INTRODUCING: A NEW POST SERIES

As in impetus to myself to "dig deeper", I will use this post series to go through my old Bible mark by mark, starting in Genesis and working through Revelation. I will study these highlights, underlines, and margin notes--some from more recent years, some made in my youth--and I will challenge myself, through this reading, musing, and reflecting, to recapture a sense of passion for my Creator, my Savior, and my faith; a passion that, sadly, has become too much of a hit-or-miss, depends-on-the-day sort of energy as I "mature." 

This series of posts will take a while. There are 27 years of markings in this Bible, after all! But I will try to pause and linger on at least one each week. I won't promise polished prose or wisdom, but I will do my best to approach these markings with honesty and openness. 

Will you join me?