Did you know the average commute time in the U.S. is about 25 minutes? In part one I shared how I used my daily two hour commute to memorize scripture. Since moving my commute is a little shorter and I no longer have a car with a broken radio. Nonetheless I wanted to continue using this time to deepen my faith and understanding of God.
I am experimenting with an audio version for my year through the Bible. This is in addition to memorization and any study I may give to a particular passage. It may be hard for us to imagine the Bible before it was a book. While the Word of God has been kept in collections e.g. Torah, Psalms it was only a few who could read it and even fewer who owned a copy. Before the printing press and efforts to translate the Scriptures into other languages, Synagogue and Church were the primary place a believer could hear the Word (sadly many cultures still do not have a copy of the Word in their own language). While it is a blessing to have a copy of the Bible in one's own language and be able to read and reread it deeply, we must acknowledge that for most of history, the scriptures were primarily heard and remembered.
I tried the Logos ESV audio book but eventually went with the Audible NIV audio book because I could listen to it offline, it synced with the last place I listened, and I could turn off the screen while listening.
Positives
- I'm getting a great overview of the Bible. Listening for about one hour a day on my commute takes me through a few chapters a day. After listening for only a couple of months, I'm already at 1 Kings (11th out of the 66 books in the Christian Bible). This provided me with a great survey of the Torah and the history of early Israel that would have been difficult for me to gain by daily reading.
- My brain seems to remember the stories and events better by listening than I ever have by reading them.
- No excuse to miss my daily time in the Bible.
- It's difficult to pause/go back (although the Audible app makes it fairly simple) to something I heard. If I hear something I want to study more deeply, I need to make a note to go back to it.
- This would be no different if I was reading the Bible, but the names are not common to modern ears and so it is easy to get lost and mix up names.
- I was on a two hour road trip and I thought this would be a perfect time to listen, but since I was on an unfamiliar road I found it harder to listen than on my commute where I don't need to think about which exit I need to take.
All in all I think this is a good experiment and will be really helpful in giving me a better mental view of what was said and when events took place. I'll continue this for the rest of my read through the Bible this year and update the post with the experience for the poetical books (Psalms), Gospels, Epistles, and whether or not I would do it again. If you have even a 20 minute commute, I would recommend giving this a try as a way to keep you in God's Word every day.
