Pause: Review

Some days ago, my lovely friend Angie asked how I was getting on with Pause as my daily reading Bible. I am sure she will not mind my responding here instead of writing her a personal e-mail -- I want to share with you all just how good this Bible is!

It has taken me a couple of weeks to find the way of using this Bible that works for me but I think, tonight, I have finally got it sussed.

The first thing I have learned is that I do not want to share absolutely everything I learn from this Bible reading experience and, as you know, I have blogged about that previously.

The next thing I learned is that Bible reading in the morning does not work for me. Nor does Bible reading in the afternoon. What does work is reading the Bible after dinner and evening routine are complete. I worry a little that this means God comes last on my list of things to do but that honestly isn't the case. In the morning I am far too sleepy after the medication I have taken the night before to make me sleep. I cannot concentrate and praying just makes me want to sleep even more than I usually do. I have tried but it was not a good experience and I don't think the time I spent with God was quality time. Afternoon just didn't feel right. However, in the evening my anxiety is at its peak and I have found that reading the Bible and praying at this time relieves the anxiety as well as medication.

For a few nights, I went to bed as soon as evening routine was finished and read the Bible for a couple of hours before I went to sleep. The Bible is arranged in daily sections so obviously I was reading more than the suggested portion each day. There is, of course, nothing wrong with reading more of the Bible than you've been asked to! But I felt I was just skimming the surface.

This evening, I have tried something a little different. Instead of going to bed with the Bible, I have got it through in the livingroom and the computer. I have created a new section in Microsoft OneNote called, appropriately enough, Bible reading. I prayed and then turned to the next section of the Bible. I put the headset that the voice recognition software needs and read the Bible while speaking aloud the notes that I would like to make on it. I then went to want to answer the question relating to the Bible passage straight into OneNote. I found that this really slowed me down and I am still mulling over what I wrote. This can only be good, right?

So, now I have worked out how to use it properly, here is a little review of the The Message Remix Pause.

This bible bills itself as an everyday reading Bible in contemporary language. I think it does exactly what it says on the tin. Using Eugene Peterson's The Message translation, the Bible is arranged in segments to be read every day. The books are not presented in the order are found in most of today's Bibles. The reader begins reading Genesis interspersed with chapters from the Gospel of John. Although the Bible is divided into daily segments, there are further divisions within the text which would allow the reader to work through more slowly. After each passage from the Bible is a relevant and thought-provoking question. I feel that these would be appropriate for new or more mature Christians. Obviously, the more mature reader will be able to go deeper. All in all, I am very impressed with this book and am looking forward to working my way through it over the coming year.