The Book

I'm nearing the end of great journey. In fact, it will end tonight.

This journey started about three and half years ago, though it has seen it's share of interruptions. My senior year at Northwestern was a crazy one. When I returned at the beginning of the school year in August, I was a bit disillusioned--with my writing, my professors, my roommates, and myself. Frankly, I was unhappy. I was nearing the brink of graduation, about to become engaged the man I'd been dating for the last six years, and lost. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't know what I wanted to be--but more importantly, I didn't know who I was at that very moment.

In the fall, I was working in the college's writing center, tutoring over-privileged college students (mostly freshman) who didn't know a comma from a semicolon. They were desperate to pass Comp I, and I was desperate to prevent the rapid downfall of the English language. And also make enough money to fill up my gas tank to drive home on the weekends.

I arrived to work one day exhausted, I had a raging sinus infection, no voice, and a headache that was furiously scratching at my eyeballs. There was only one appointment scheduled, so I sold my soul to my co-worker to take it, and I slept on the floor, desperately pleading that no one walk in for an appointment.

But someone did.

He was a freshman in Comp I. He had failed multiple grammar quizzes and was now required to receive a certain number of hours of tutoring. I pulled myself off the ground, and I'm sure he was just as thrilled as I was to start the session. I was wearing over-sized sweatpants and hoodie--both borrowed from my roommate, who borrowed them from her ex-boyfriend. My hair was matted from the floor nap, and I hadn't worn makeup in a week. I told him I didn't have much of a voice, but we would try to crank out a few practice quizzes so he could get his coveted "blue sheet" signing off on his mandatory tutoring.

We had just sat down to start studying when he asked if he could pray for me.

I eyed him suspiciously. This was Northwestern. There are a whole lot of genuinely wonderful, loving people there. And there are a whole lot of hypocrites. I shrugged and let him pray. He laid his hand on my shoulder and prayed for healing in my body and the strength to finish my tutoring for the day.

This poor young man was terrible at grammar. He repeatedly failed quizzes and essays, so he was constantly in the ALPHA center. We started hanging out outside of work in the Student Center, and he would help me with my theology homework. We stayed up all night one night in the discussing beauty for one of my Christianity and Writing essays. In all my life, I had never met anyone so genuine--and some one who truly loved Jesus as much as he did.

And that's when this journey started. I shared with him my disillusion with my life and myself. And he bluntly asked if I was reading my Bible. He encouraged me to read the entire Bible--not in one setting, not even in one year. But to read it start to finish--every book, every chapter, every verse.

So I did.

I started in Matthew (I was afraid I'd get discouraged if I started in Genesis and had to read the Pentateuch right away). Tonight, I will finish with Malachi. It's taken me years, as I've mostly read just two-three chapters a night. I admit, some time shortly after we got married, I stopped. We began reading The Daily Bread together, and I let my personal reading slide. Eventually I picked it back up, and now I'm finishing. I've been on this journey in my Moyer 12 dorm room, my room at my parents' house when I moved back home for the summer, our first apartment on Vine Street, and now the very first house we've owned. The same pink Bible has traveled with me on various night stands near my bed.

For whatever reason, I'm very thankful that one young man was sent to me in the ALPHA Center while I was sick out of my mind. He taught me how to love Jesus and how to read the Bible.

So while this is an enormous personal accomplishment for me, I know this journey is nowhere near the end. I'm not sure if I'm going to start over or start something new--but I'm so glad I've made it a habit.