My Bible – Choose Your Pace

We live in a fast-moving, technological time when getting left behind is easy. Through personal choice, it’s possible to step back and seek a slower, albeit different, pace. I’m not sure I want to back up to a prior time when we yearned for better technology as we ratcheted a blank page into our manual typewriters.

But leave your phone at home on a day you need and use it the most?

Nope… I don’t want to retreat from staying in the front of the pack of technology.

We get used to the solutions we’ve generated around our use, and when that goes awry we struggle to make connections. Fortunately, my bride could turn on her hotspot, so my iPad was more than a paperweight.

I woke this morning thinking about life back then and the Jetson age we’re facing in the near future.

Maybe it’s not about picking up the pace but staying in touch with the pace of moving forward.

We think nothing of a late-night run to Cold Stone Ice Cream for a fix.
Let’s see. At $16 for the treat and 45 miles (2 gallons of gas at $5.20 per gallon).
Easily, we could have stopped at a local grocery store,
bought a half-gallon of some frozen brand,
and manufactured our own solution.

While standing in line, several delivery drivers popped in to pick up an order to drive to some customers waiting in the comfort of their homes. No. We live further out, where even the local pizza drivers would not come.

When we were younger, we thought nothing about driving to Galveston. Gas and wages were cheaper, but something was captivating about getting to the beach before the sun came up and watching life light up.

My mind turns to a life of biblical times—no fast food, technology, or high-speed racers zooming through the landscape. You go no faster than your slowest animal or person if you are nomadic. Days and months later, you reach your destination. In America, from 400 years ago till now, we’ve watched the speed at which we change our pace—walking explorers, then horses, trains, and planes. Now, we can see the disaster on the other side of the globe from the comfort of our mobile phones.

Still, in this increasingly fast-paced life, we must slow down and reconnect with the moment.

Open your bible and read. Don’t skim, skip, or wonder why. Take time to pause, think, research, and understand. That doesn’t happen at the speed of Google! It wasn’t too long ago that owning a personal book of any kind was an extravagant moment! Family bibles, using a shared bible around a library table, or listening closely as someone else reads the passage.

Regardless, when I take my time and prayerfully think it out, I find that I store up more of what I’m studying. My pace may be slower, but my retention is more assured.

John 5:31-39 NKJV NKJV

“If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.
There is another who bears witness of Me,
and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.
You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
Yet I do not receive testimony from man,
but I say these things that you may be saved.
He was the burning and shining lamp,
and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.
But I have a greater witness than John’s;
for the works which the Father has given Me to finish
—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me,
that the Father has sent Me.
And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me.
You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.
But you do not have His word abiding in you,
because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life;
and these are they which testify of Me.

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