I'm going to be in the Smithsonian!

--Now, before you start your jokes about "that's where all old relics go..." hear me out. Bible Across America is a neat project that is making its way across the country. And it just so happens that they are at the National Pastors Convention that I'm attending in San Diego right now. Here's how it works: The group is asking 31,173 people to each hand-write one verse of the Bible. That's right...write it out on a page. One person per verse. These pages will then be submitted into the Smithsonian Institute as a "modern day copy" of the Today's New International Version of the Bible. My contribution was to write out John 11:42:

"I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit

of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

How cool is that?

But get this: as I grabbed the pen and started to ink out my portion of Scripture, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. I imagined the scribes of old who would roll out scrolls of the ancient text and copy it word for word. What a powerful thing. What a responsibility. What an honor. And then, it hit me--"what business do I have, writing out Scripture? I'm no scribe. I'm not worthy of writing this down."

God's word is so precious. Far too valuable to be taken lightly--especially by someone who is such a wretched sinner as myself. As I placed the tip of the pen on the paper, my hand began to shake. I worried that I was going to screw something up. What if I misspelled something? What if I left a word out? What if lightning struck me for daring to transcribe the Holy Word of God? It was painstaking. It was horrifying!

I managed to get through it without any lightning strikes or mistakes. I guess once it's made public, you can critique my work yourself! Ha!

Anyway, it's a neat project that has Americans writing out the Bible. I love it. Just wanted to tell you about it.