I was chatting with my friend Justin this morning, and he was telling me that HE WASN’T FOLLOWING A BIBLE READING PLAN THIS YEAR!

So of course I started composing an email to our Presbytery’s moderator and stated clerk to report this dereliction of duty.

But before I could hit “send” on my indictment, Justin explained that he was taking a choose your own adventure approach to Bible reading in 2026. For example, Justin started with The Gospel of Mark, and while bantering with Mark he kept hearing Mark mention references to Deuteronomy and Joshua, so – after finishing his confabulation with Mark – Justin chose to embark on the adventure of a stichomythia with Joshua!

Justin said, “A Bible reading plan is like a treadmill. It’s fine, but it’s not the best way to read the Bible. …Reading the Bible should feel more like hiking a trail. You’re not just checking-the-box and logging your perusal progress; you’re tripping over the sundry rocks and roots of God’s enigmatic stories. You’re receiving the substance of Scripture like a hiker joyfully struggling up a steep incline, or intricately navigating a precipitous descent. You’re sucking wind at the high-altitude, high-risk, summit of Esther’s epic, and the palisaded saga of Samson!”