Journals
Introduction
In Advance Placement Language and Composition class of 2013-14, we read the book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. With classes like this, projects are given. After all, the class can’t really prepare you for college (which is kind of the point of AP classes) without some kind of project. The project given to the students was to give up or do something for two weeks in order to get a little idea of what the author, A.J. Jacobs, went through in his year or living by the rules of the Bible. I chose to give up pop and read the Bible for at least twenty minutes everyday. This is my journey.
Summary of the Book
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs has a pretty self-explanatory title to be honest. A.J. Jacobs gets his hands on various versions of the Bible from the NIV to the KJV. Once he has the Bibles, Jacobs spends around five hours a day for weeks reading the various versions he’s acquired and picks out every rule written. After finding all the rules, he puts them into practice in his daily life. He follows the more popular rules of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes but also follows the rules that most people don’t know. For example, stone adulterers, don’t shave beards, and at one point, even paints his door post with “lamb blood”. Doing this about drives him to insanity. Jacobs also has his wife and son to worry about. Jacobs does things that other would think insane. Painting the door post is just one example. Jacobs also takes down/covers up pictures to avoid false idols, “stones” an adulterer, avoids mixed fibers, and considers marrying a second woman because polygamy was a common occurrence in Old Testament times. Some of the challenges are difficult for him. A.J. Jacobs works as an editor for Esquire magazine. Working for this magazine exposes him to things he wants to stay away from throughout the year. One of the biggest things Jacobs has to avoid in his job is the adultery. The Bible says that even if you look at a woman sexually, it is considered adultery. Jacobs also had to avoid eating certain foods considered impure. Most of the impure foods Jacobs avoids are meat.
This challenge Jacobs takes on also affects his family. A couple months in, Jacobs’ wife gets pregnant. They struggle to decide if they want to raise him in an Orthodox Christian home. They eventually decide on yes but it was still a struggle. The beard caused a bit of a struggle too. Jacobs’ wife wouldn’t kiss him for the last two months. It wasn’t until after he shaved that they kissed again. One thing that should be made known is that Jacobs is a safety freak for his son. One thing that scared Jacobs about not shaving the beard is that his son wouldn’t recognize him after he shaved. Jacobs heard that some children freaked out and denied them when their fathers completely shaved. Now Jacobs, who is a safety freak, decides to take things into his own hands. He does this by greeting his son with a picture of shaved face covering his bearded face. This weirds out his son. Luckily for the Jacobs family, everything worked out for the better. By the end of the book, they were attending a synagogue every once awhile and Jacobs became a Reverent Orthodox.
As The Oregonian says in their review, “The Year of Living Biblically is worth reading. It’s a good book about the Good Book.” I couldn’t agree more.
Journal
Day 1: October 23
My choice to give up pop and read the Bible for at least 20 minutes was easy than expected yet still difficult in a way. My first hour is an independent study where I study teaching methods. During this hour, I go into the library and research methods and philosophies of teaching. I have a couple friends who I sit with who also have an independent study. About 10 minutes into first hour, two of the said friends go down and buy a pop out of the cafeteria vending machine. They always offer me some of the pop, and usually, I accept. But today I didn’t. Then again, you can’t deny something you weren’t offered. Oh well.
Out of the two things I’m giving up/starting, Reading the Bible was the most difficult. It’s not that it was hard to do, but it was hard to find time to do it. I tried reading during school but I was constantly being distracted by my hilarious friends that I sit around in most my classes. You might be asking “Why not read after school?” Usually, I would read after school, but after school, I practiced with the Cornerstone University men’s soccer team as a recruit for the 2014 season. I didn’t get home till around ten. I eventually did read but it wasn’t until late around 11. It feels weird. I should be reading my Bible constantly. I feel that now I’m only reading it for this project. Don’t get me wrong, it still feels good to know that I’m reading but part of me thinks that I’m doing it for the wrong reason even though I’m enjoying it. Hopefully this habit of reading will catch on and I will continue to read the Bible more after the two weeks of this project are up.
Day 2: October 24
I’ve discovered a stash of pop that’s chilling (pun intended) in the family back-up refrigerator in the garage. There is a twelve pack of regular coke, a twelve pack of vanilla coke, and 2 twelve packs of lemonade which I’m not sure if I should count as pop. Lemonade is not technically pop but it is still in a pop can. I think I’ll consider lemonade acceptable. Fortunately for me, I don’t really like coke. I used to like coke before my trip to Ethiopia. Long story short, I got sick, I was given cough syrup that tasted like coke, and now some psychological ideology inside of me relates that sickness to coke and I instantly feel sick again.
The Bible part of this challenge is getting easier as the days progress. I’ve gone to Church my whole life so I was basically raised around the Bible. At church you rarely hear the stories. Church sermons are mostly teaching lessons and telling the audience how to live life. I have decided to read the book of Joshua. Joshua was Moses’ successor. Once Moses died, Joshua took over and led his people to the Promised Land. One of the most popular stories about Joshua is the destruction of Jericho. If you don’t know this story, here it is. Joshua sent some spies into Jericho to scout out the land. The king heard of this and sent some guards after the spies. When the spies heard of the king’s choice to send guards after them, the spies hid with Rahab (a prostitute, some say innkeeper). Rahab made a deal with the spies. Since Rahab hid them, Rahab and her family would be spared. The spies made it back to the Israelite camp. The Lord commanded them to march around Jericho seven times and on the last lap, scream and make as much noise as possible. The walls then fell down allowing the Israelites to go into the city and take over. I’ve really started to enjoy my reading time because I get to read parts that I don’t really get to read. I grew up hearing the story of the destruction of Jericho but now I’m starting to get more in depth with what happened during that time and after.
Day 6: October 28
I’ve decided to not write everyday as my challenge is not one that really impacts my life a ton like some of my fellow student’s challenges. Don’t get me wrong. Not drinking pop and reading the Bible for at least 20 minutes every day is a challenge. But other challenges like the clichéd “no talking challenge” is probably just a little bit more difficult than mine. I haven’t decided what days I should write so I’ll probably just write every other day or every 3 days. Who knows?
Today was a bit more of a challenge to complete my task than most days. I went on another college visit to Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan. I easily could’ve read my Bible on the trip down but of course I forgot it. I just happened to bring my copy of The Year of Living Biblically. So I read that for about twenty minutes or so until I got tired. Reflecting on that trip, it would have been hard to read anyways. I was with my dad and we talked for most the trip. It felt rude to sit there and read no matter what I was reading.
The pop challenge goes along with the college visit also. We arrived in the city of Spring Arbor around 11:30 which was almost an hour before we were scheduled for the visit. We decided to stop at the McDonalds across the street and get some lunch before heading over for t he visit. With any fast food joint comes temptation to pop. That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned so far. I easily could’ve gone for a glass of root beer but instead, I settled for a glass of the orange flavored Hi-C. Hi-C is very out of the ordinary for me to drink. I don’t think my parents know of this challenge so it probably looked weird to my dad. We had the opportunity to eat lunch on the campus also. And being us, we took the opportunity of getting free and good food in a heartbeat. They had pop there. And it looked good. Fortunately, the dining commons had milk, water, and a variety of warm beverages. Chocolate milk was definitely the way to go. That is another thing I have learned. There are always other choices. Most of the time, it is chocolate milk. Everyone knows a soccer player’s favorite drink is chocolate milk. So I, being the soccer player that I am, drank probably four glasses of chocolate milk. Four glasses was probably too much. But I learned growing up that milk builds strong bones so in the end those fours glasses of milk actually helped me.
Day 10: November 1
Pop had still been pretty easy to give up. I’ll be honest though, I did drink pop once albeit very little. In my PALs class, we had a food hour and some people brought in pop. I completely forgot about my pop fast until I had had some. I stopped then and went back to drinking water. I actually enjoy drinking water more now.
The Bible challenge is still fairly easy to accomplish. It just gets harder to stay awake and read. I have a designated time that I read every day. It’s always twenty minutes before I go to bed. Technically, I have failed. But in a way I didn’t. I don’t go to bed at the same time every night. Some nights I’m up till 10:30, others till 12:30. So on nights that I go to bed at 12:30, I’m reading the Bible from 12-12:20ish. That 20 minute time slot is technically the next day, but I haven’t gone to bed yet so I still consider it the same day. So far, I’ve read through three and a half books including Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and halfway through first Samuel. I still enjoy that I’m reading some of the history of the Bible but I’ve also noticed that I’ve been paying more attention in church on Sundays. As much as I’d like to make this a habit, I think it will be cut down to around 10 minutes and maybe a couple minutes here and there throughout the day. I guess we’ll see as the deadline for this project comes up.
Day 11: November 2
Today was kind of like yesterday as far as achieving my goals. I was challenged by the pop one though. I went up to Cornerstone again to watch the guy’s soccer team beat Lawrence Tech. I brought my friend BK up to watch with me and to introduce him to the coach. The game didn’t get done till around 9:20 and BK and I, being two high schools boys, were hungry. No shock right? So we metaphorically hopped on to the high way and headed home. We got on M6 and I asked if he wanted to stop somewhere. So we stopped at the Wendy’s on Kalamazoo Avenue and got some food. Remember when I said the one thing I learned over these two weeks is that everything is a choice? Well I remembered that when I was getting my drink. To my luck, there was Powerade. So I got that.
I forgot what day it was, but the other day in class we watched a commencement speech that was centered around us having a choice in everything we do… I thought it was funny how that happened. But hey, I have a weird sense of humor.
Now for the Bible. After the Cornerstone game and Wendy’s, we stopped at a friend’s bonfire. Let’s just say I was out a little later than expected and I didn’t get home until after midnight. So technically, I didn’t read that day. But, I did read when I got home before I went to bed. So in my book, I still accomplished what I wanted to. That was tough. It had been a busy day and I wanted to sleep (I’m writing this on Sunday because I didn’t want to write that late at night). I was extremely close to falling asleep while reading. I decided my posture had something to do with it so I sat up a little. That helped but I was still tired. I finished my twenty minutes and went to bed. Man I wish I had known that the clocks would be set back an hour.
Day 14: November 5
Today’s the last day of the two weeks. You might be asking yourself, “Self, why is Matt writing on random days?” Well the answer to that is: With a challenge as simple as this, there isn’t a whole lot to write about per day. Most days are the same. They consist of me thinking don’t drink pop and read the Bible. It’s really that simple. This journal is just going to be me reflect on the past two weeks. I definitely learned some things about challenges over the two weeks.
The pop challenge was fairly easy; I don’t drink pop much as it is. There were a couple days that I was tempted by the caffeinated beverage but fortunately, I only gave in once. I say fortunately because I was tempted to drink pop almost every other day making the total temptation days 7. I’m for sure going to try to not drink pop for awhile but I’m not sure how it will go. Drinking pop is kind of a special occasion drink for me. I don’t have very many special occasions so I shouldn’t have much of a problem with this challenge. Time to start stocking up on the chocolate milk nesquik powder.
I’m also going to try to continue the Bible reading challenge. I’m going to cut it down a little though. I think I’m going to make it a chapter or two a day. I’m going to continue reading from where I left off in 1st Samuel. I feel really weird about doing this challenge. It feels weird to me that I had to use this challenge for a school assignment to get me reading for more than three minutes at a time. But I also feel good that I read more than usual. I was always told, “read your Bible” growing up and I always have read, but it wasn’t until this assignment that I actually read more than a chapter a day. I still have mixed emotions about this. To sum that up, I feel bad for the reasoning but I feel good that I did it. I’m definitely going to continue to read more than usual.
Lessons
With a two week challenge like this, some lessons are going to be learned. One of the biggest things I learned throughout the two weeks is that everything is a choice. For my challenges, whether or not I would drink pop is a challenge. I could choose to drink it and fail the challenge (which did happen, though not intentionally) or I could choose to not drink and continue.
Another lesson I learned was to always carry a water bottle. If I was eating at lunch and the only thing to drink was pop, I’d whip out my water bottle and drink that. Not only is water good, but it is good for you. Drinking water is one thing I need to start doing more of if I want to be in good shape and play college soccer.
This last lesson has always been known to me but I didn’t really put it into practice until now. Set aside time everyday to read the Bible. I really got to enjoy the Bible over the past couple weeks. I had always read the lessons parts of the Bible but for this challenge, I read the story parts. Reading the story parts made it more appealing to me. I felt like I was reading a nonfiction book like something you would read about a war or time in history which, in reality, that is exactly what the Bible is.
Another minor lesson I learned was if you want to challenge yourself for a given amount of time, the challenge needs to be something that will be really difficult. Choosing a difficult challenge will push you and this will show you what you’re made of and how some things in this life can change you. It’s not that this wasn’t a hard challenge but I don’t feel that much different from when I started. A.J. Jacobs’ whole life was flipped around and my life didn’t stray from the way it usually is. If I were to do this again, I would for sure do something a little more challenging.
Summary of My Experience
My experience was challenging yet simple. All I had to do was avoid pop and read the Bible for at least twenty minutes a day. I made it my goal to read before bed every night. This is where the challenging came in. I don’t have a set time that I go to bed. It’s usually somewhere between 9:30 and 11:30. I prefer it to be closer to 9:30 but sometimes there’s homework that needs to be done. Reading the Bible would always be the last thing I do before I slept. What that means is, if I started to sleep at 11:30, 11:10-11:3o was reading. This was a good tradition for me but it was hard for me to concentrate on what I was reading when I was tired. I still completed it but it was difficult and there were a couple days where I was tempted to stop early and take the amount of time that I didn’t finish and tack it onto the next day but I decided against that because I knew I would either forget or continue tacking time on day after day. With my luck, I would end up reading for an hour on a night where I have a ton of homework and I wouldn’t get to bed until it was really late. This is where the two challenges connect. If I’m up late one night, I will usually buy a pop with caffeine to wake me up. It was a bad habit albeit beneficial to the amount of energy I lack in the morning. I couldn’t buy pop with this challenge. I actually just put that connection together now but it’s still true. Not only did not drinking pop help with my health but if also saved me a dollar twenty-five per pop. That may not sound like a lot, but it all adds up. Two and a half pops can buy you just under a gallon of gas. The amount of money I saved from not buying pop was used for more beneficial things like food. All in all, this project was a success. I learned a few lessons from this that can be read about in the lessons section of the paper. I fully intend to keep doing the things I did for the project just maybe not as strict about them.
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