Rant: Wish I had more time for serious Bible study

[Epistemes]

Just bought some great commentaries on Gospel of Mark, but between juggling my job and home life during the week and my increasingly busy weekends, there just isn’t time to sit down and get through these and have time to digest their contents.

 

[Belisarius777]

Just bought some great commentaries on Gospel of Mark, but between juggling my job and home life during the week and my increasingly busy weekends, there just isn’t time to sit down and get through these and have time to digest their contents.

I know exactly what you mean. When I was a Protestant Bible student I had all the time in the world to study and was reading through the New Testament once a month and the Old Testament once a year. I miss having the time for that.
These days I have to be happy with reading and studying the commentaries for one chapter a day so it takes about three years to go through the whole Bible (I am Orthodox so we have approximately the same sized Bibles).
I take heart from a talk by a Roman Catholic monk I read a few years ago on Lectio Divina who gave many examples of Desert Fathers who would spend months or even years trying to apply a single verse or short passage of Scripture.
Ultimately it is not about how many chapters we are able to study but how deeply we apply what we read whether it is a little or a lot.
I only need to study what I can apply until my next study time. More than this could be spiritually damaging: “Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.” (1 Corinthians 13:1)

 

[Strategery]

Just bought some great commentaries on Gospel of Mark, but between juggling my job and home life during the week and my increasingly busy weekends, there just isn’t time to sit down and get through these and have time to digest their contents.

I recommend committing to Lectio Divina for 15 minutes per day. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need a lot of time to tell you what He wants you to know.

 

[SonCatcher]

I have shifted to audio studies (CDs/MP3s). I don’t get into the depth I would like but can listen in the car everywhere I go.

 

[svid]

If only the earth’s rotation would slow down; we might all get a 25 or 26 hour day…

 

[COPLAND_3]

Quantity is not near as enlightening as quality. I highly recommend digesting enough at a time so that most of it sinks in instead of trying to cram in too much to where you forget over half of what you read the next day. I like to focus on a chapter a week, and just meditate on it, while consulting various commentators (preferably the Fathers and Doctors of the Church).