Route 66

I've never been on Route 66. It would be an awesome road trip one day, and I plan to do it soon - real soon.

Recently I saw one of those famous road signs - very recognizable to all of us. And I got to thinking, you know there are 66 books in the Bible. Maybe I can make a connection here.

Thinking that I had an original idea (which is rare) I wanted to correlate the idea of Route 66 with something to do with the Bible. So I quickly googled it, and discovered that, of course, I still haven't had many original ideas. There are lots of Route 66 Bible studies out there, names of Bible study classes and Route 66 youth groups: my original idea is everywhere. Bummer.

What I didn't see was this: A memory verse system, called "Route 66", whereby you memorize 1 verse from each book of the Bible. Something I actually need to do.

It's down right embarrassing for me to have not memorized more versus, this late in my life. It's time that a lot of us just got over our weakness for memory verses and buckled down - bowed our shoulders back - put our hearts and minds into something important - and do it now.

I'm admittedly not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, so if I am going to memorize 66 versus, I need a system. So over the course of about a week I poured through each book of the Bible and picked a verse from each. I tried to keep it to a short verse, but a verse that says something
to me about that particular book - that could jar my memory, and help me remember not only the verse but the context of the book. And, I didn't want the usual suspect versus like John 3:16 (good, but not challenging, if you know what I mean).

It could take me months, even years. But I have my 66 versus and I'm going for it. First, I'm just trying to get the verse that ties to the book. Later on (maybe way later) I'll add the actual reference number if I can't remember it now. My goal is to be able to quote, on the spot, one verse from each of the 66 books.

I'm not telling you this to edify or somehow glorify myself and my great future accomplishment (well, maybe a little bit :)). No, maybe you could try it too?

You could pick your own, or try mine. For instance, my Genesis verse is 3:9 - 'Then the Lord called out to the man, "where are you?"'. This verse tells me what the book is all about: God is there, you left Him, He knows where you are, but He wants you to acknowledge Him and find Him again.

Or, take my verse for Acts, 28:1 - 'Once we were safe on shore, we learned that we were on the island of Malta.' This verse tells me that Paul and others were missionaries; Paul was also a prisoner; a leader; and he was one tough dude.

Or, take my verse for Ruth, 2:1 - 'Now, there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz.' This verse tells me that this city was important in history even before Jesus' birth, and that the book has a lot of corollaries to our kinsman redeemer - Jesus (wealthy and influential).

So, if you want to take a cool road trip - check out my Route 66 sometime. I keep it neatly tucked in my wallet to look at anytime (Starbucks, the gym, etc.) , a 1-page list of 66 versus.