University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

You have just opened the Bible, a book upon which so much of American life has been structured. Our law, the principles that guide our morality, and our culture are all based upon this book.  I don’t know why you opened it.  Perhaps a course requirement prompted you to do so, or perhaps just curiosity.  It was the latter that first prompted me to open, and then to read, this book.  I chose this particular one because the first Bible I ever read was a Bible that included daily devotional commentary by Max Lucado.  I followed his reading plan, reading a little bit each day, and although it took two years, I finished it all, start to finish, Genesis to Revelation.  As I said, the process was initiated out of curiosity. The surprise was how very transformative and deeply personal the exercise became.  In the course of reading this book, at the ripe old age of 56, I became a Christian, moving from my rock solid agnostic conviction of “Well…maybe there’s a God” to becoming a passionate follower of Christ.  Other books, of course, contributed to the radical alteration in my thinking, not the least of which were The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, as well as The Language of God by Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and currently director of the National Institutes of Health.  But, it was this book, this collection of books called the Bible, this library of history and inspiration, that changed my life.  And it can change yours, too.    Go ahead.  Don’t just open this book.  Read it.   I dare you.