Books, books, and more books.

I don’t know if I’d call my library extensive, but I do feel like I have lots of books. I’d say my library is currently uncategorized. I know some who have their libraries catalogued by author, some by category or genre, some by size, and I’ve even seen books arranged by color.

My books were once arranged by four main categories. Fiction, non-fiction, Christian fiction and Christian non-fiction. We don’t have that much room for books, so some of my books were in a closet in the study—out of the way, but still accessible and categorized. Then, we replaced our flooring and the organization fell apart. Books are now everywhere. Putting them back together is going to take effort I’m just not ready to give.

As I prepared this post, I did a quick inventory of my books on photography and writing (at least the ones I could find). Please don’t tell my wife, but I have eight books on photography and forty-nine books on writing. Forty-nine isn’t that many is it? I mean, I have three of the same title, two of those shouldn’t count.

If reading about writing was all it took to be a best-selling author, I should be one ten times over.

But, of course, it takes more than reading about something to be good at that something. If you want to be a good photographer, you have to take pictures—lots of them. If you want to be a good writer, you guessed it, you have to write—a lot!

Here’s another secret. I have more books on the Bible and Christian living than photography and writing combined. And, the same concept of “doing” applies to Christian living.

James tells us in James 1:22 (New International Version),

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

We could talk for hours about this. Christian living is a life-long pursuit, one never perfected here on earth. From www.biblestudy101.org we find the Bible is comprised of 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses, and 774,746 words. Some of these statistics depend on the translation, but the average Bible runs more than 1,200 pages.

How in the world can we ever do all the Bible teaches us?

To me, the answer is as simple as James’ instruction to “Do not merely listen to the word… Do what it says.”

After I’d read how to operate my camera (yes, I’m a manual reader), I began reading about the craft and art of photography. I knew immediately I needed to practice what I read. So, I took pictures. For example, my wife and I traveled to France in 2012 for her Master’s course in International Business. I’m an introvert and needed to take pictures, so I assumed the self-selected position of trip photographer.

No one asked me to do it, I just took photo after photo, practicing what I read. And, I got better. At the end of the trip, I had a few hundred “keepers” along with “thousands” destined for trash. For those who wanted them, I shared the keepers.

On January 1, 2013, I began a “photo-a-day” journal (the one that fuels this blog). Just one picture each day. Sometimes with my camera and sometimes with my phone. They didn’t have to be perfect, just taken.

I encourage you to do something similar in your Christian walk. You can call it your “once-a-day” project.

Pray. Focus on one aspect of your relationship with God. Maybe its thanksgiving. Maybe praise. Maybe you have people on a prayer list. Maybe it’s time for confession.

Read scripture. Could be a verse, a chapter or a parable.

Meditate on your reading, then act on it.

Do good for someone. Doesn’t have to be much. A text, word, or card.

You may feel led to do more. Good for you! But if you’re stuck or overwhelmed, just do something. Soon, you’ll find yourself praying more, reading more, meditating more, and sharing more.

Let us know how you do it, so our readers (and I) can learn and be encouraged by you.

Have fun and know I’m praying for you this week.