277 Challenge

My best friend is an inspiration to me, and is also an incredible human being. I am blessed to have her in my life after what seemed to be a “friend drought.”

Recently, she got me a Swindoll Study Bible, with my name embossed in gold on the front cover. It is the NLT, which we both love. I started at the beginning by reading the special feature pages. There is a lot of extra features packed in that Bible, with footnotes, prayers, maps, etc. Sometimes I was finding it hard to just pick up the Bible to just read it, because I had to explore all the bonus content too.

So I went online and found two paperback versions of the NLT in large print for just reading. They arrived within a day of each other. I took one home and kept the other at my office. Well I found that in the one I took home, someone had ripped out the last page of the Bible with Revelation 21 and 22 missing! Oh No! How am I going to find out how the Bible ends? (Yes, I’m that silly!)

Well I found the answer. Skip and Amy, the morning DJ’s on KLOVE radio have a segment called, “You’ve got this.” And question number one was, “How does the Bible end?” The answer, “With a period.” (I love them because they are silly too!)

So what I did was make a copy of the page from the Bible at the office, and taped it into the Bible at home. Now I am happy.

In reading through the special sections, on page 277, was an article entitled, “Attitude about aging.”

In which Chuck Swindoll talks about Caleb (see Joshua 14:10-11) and how he is now 85 years old and still ready and able to go fight to gain his allotted portion of land. Mr. Swindoll gives five suggestions to help us be an inspiration.

1. Your mind is not old. Keep stretching it. He suggests memorizing 50 Bible verses in one year.
2. Your life is not over. Keep enjoying it.
3. Your strength is not gone. Keep developing it.
4. Your opportunities have not vanished. Keep pursuing them.
5. Your God is not dead. Keep seeking Him.

It was the first one that caught my attention. I’ve given half-hearted attempts to memorize verses in the past. The Bible says Caleb was whole-hearted. So I reached out to my BFFAE (Best Friend For All Eternity) and issued the challenge. Let’s memorize one verse a week for an entire year. And she accepted and came up with the name, the 277 Challenge, based on the page number.

We also decided that John 11:35 would not be one of the verses, as we are trying to stretch ourselves, and “Then Jesus wept” was too easy. Plus we already knew that one.

I put mine on a 3×5 card that I can prop up and see when I’m washing eggs at the kitchen sink. Washing 8 to 9 dozen eggs each day takes a bit of time, so I get some real time to meditate on my verse for the week. Then I find myself expanding on it, like I’m the Amplified Bible. It has also then led me to think about what God is saying to me in the verse, and what it says about Him. Then I find myself expand into praising and worshiping Him too. She’s put hers in a little 3×5 book that she carries around with her.

We started out challenge on Good Friday, and I am astounded at the results so far. More times than not, instead of going down a negative rabbit hole when something pops up, I go right to the verse for the week instead, and it changes my focus onto God, where it should be.

So while my BFFAE and I are enjoying the fruits of this challenge, she suggested that we share this with members of our church, and that I should write a blog on it and ask you to join us in this adventure. (She’s very unselfish that way. Not keeping all the good stuff to herself.)

Because this could impact lives in a good way, and get us all closer to our Real Friend for all eternity, Jesus!

Period.

(There I ended it just like the “You’ve got this question.”)

(Yes, I am still that silly!)

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