To No One But The Stars

I'll admit, when I first heard that Bartow County was going to have people read through the entire bible out loud in 72 hours, I didn't quite get it.

In my head I was asking questions like:

"Someone is going to be out there at 3am reading Leviticus and not fall asleep?" 

"There won't be a crowd around to listen to people reading? ...so, why are you reading?" 

"Do you think people can read through the whole bible in 72 hours?"

But, as time went on and as I talked to more people about it, I began to think that it was a pretty cool idea. It gets people asking questions (like, 'why, if no one is necessarily listening, would people want to read the bible aloud?'), it creates some unity between different churches and reminds us that we're all in this together, and there's something cool about reading Leviticus aloud to no one but the stars at 3am.

So, yesterday a group of us went up to read for our 15 minute time slots and, of course, we were reading in I Chronicles. Let me share with you some of the actual text that I read:

11Azariah son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the official in charge of the house of God; 12Adaiah son of Jeroham, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malkijah; and Maasai son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer. 13The priests, who were heads of families, numbered 1,760. They were able men, responsible for ministering in the house of God.

...thrilling...

And you've never felt like an idiot until you've had to pronounce something like "Meraioth" on-the-fly and into a microphone.

And, of course, we've had terrible storms here in Georgia the past few days (starting the night that the bible reading began) and even some hail and tornados. So people are not only out there reading Leviticus aloud to no one but the stars at 3am, but they are out there reading Leviticus aloud to no one but the stars at 3am in the storms and hail and tornado sirens...

And it may be because I've been listening to the Tom Waits album Orphans too much (because I've finally figured out Spotify, thanks to my friend Shane Harper) or because it's stormy and dark outside and that does something to me, but I think this is one of the coolest things I've been a part of in a long time.