Nerd Alert

A few things lately have begun to change the way I read. One is a book on classical education I mentioned a while ago, The Well-Educated Mind.

At first glance, my attempt at becoming classically educated is failing. Miserably. Sorry, sis-in-law, but I am struuuuggling with Don Quixote, or "DQ" as I like to call him. A whole week of vacation, and I didn't open it once. Not a single time. Instead, I re-read Mere Christianity. Great beach read, I know.

I have, however, started incorporating the classical steps of reading, even if I'm not adhering strictly to her list. Part of Step 1, part of the initial reading, is to jot down a quick summary of each chapter - even a sentence. This is my new favorite thing to do. I now have a complete outline of Mere Christianity. I'm going to type up my notes, and then I can add thoughts or notes to it whenever I read through it again. Exciting, I know.

I also want to do some form of this for my Bible study this year.

Any of you who have talked to me in the past year have probably heard about the Bible study I've been doing through church. Basically, you read a book of the Bible a week; if you stay in the study three years, you make it all the way through. (Don't do the math; there are lots of vacations). This year is Year Two for me: The Prophets. Ugh.

I loved Year One. I've decided the Pentateuch is my favorite part of the Bible. For whatever reason I just got caught up last year in the Bigger Story that begins in the Old Testament. Lewis summarizes it briefly in Mere Christianity - "[God] selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was--that there was only one of Him ad that He cared about right conduct" (50). The whole rest of the Bible can only be partially understood without this context. There's no way to fully understand the Prophets without understanding where they came from; the New Testament is exponentially richer once you grasp the thousands of years that led up to it.

That said, I wish I would have kept more notes on my reading last year. The chapter-by-chapter notes idea is a little overwhelming. But I wish I would have even jotted down my impressions from each book. Can you imagine the notes you would have if you added to this over a lifetime? For example, I remember all through Exodus thinking what a loser Moses was. Why on earth would God choose him, of all people. Complainer, quick temper, stutterer. Yet he becomes the instrument of arguably the greatest miracle in the Bible besides the Resurrection.

Michael Hyatt's latest blog is a more practical solution than outlining the entire Bible. I'll let you read it on your own, but he basically recommends making a one-sheet summary of what you read and your reaction to it. He suggests doing this for non-fiction, self-help-ish reading, but I think his strategy would work great for the Bible, too (especially since we're moving through it so quickly).

Does this officially make me a nerd?