When I was 17 years old I bought a month long Amtrak pass and figure-eighted the country stopping at cities and sites of interest and even visiting some friends along the way. It was a grand adventure that had I a daughter of my own I would never allow her to repeat. What were my parents thinking? I didn’t even have a cell phone for crying out loud! I slept on the train and in train stations and chatted away with strangers all over the country. And I fell in love with trains. So much so that I repeated the same kind of adventure in Europe a couple years later and then again with my husband all across the U.S. and Canada. I’ve trained the coast of California with 4 little ones under 7 in tow and up the Central Valley to see our Capitol with all 5.

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So when the Bible Reading Challenge posted a train as their new logo for Same Page Summer 2020 I was all aboard. Here’s why I think a train is the perfect symbol for this endeavor.

If you’re one of those who has been too intimidated to start a Bible reading plan, it might be because you’re viewing yourself as the engine. You think you’ve got to gear yourself up and flex your muscles and start chugging away with all your might.  But the fact is, you’re not the engine at all. The Holy Spirit is the power behind this whole operation!

So imagine all the rail cars like books of the Bible. This summer you’re hopping on to car #John and you’re going to ride in there for a while and then move on to another car, #1,2 and 3rd John I believe, and then car #Ephesians and so on. You might fall off the train at some point and the train’s going to keep going without you. But here’s the thing, you’ve got one of those passes like I had so you can just hop right back on any time you want! You might not be in the same car as you were, it might July and everyone’s riding along in car #Mark now, but no plan has been derailed because you’re still heading for the same destination! Do you see what I’m saying?

The Holy Spirit is the engine that’s powering the Bible along and when you get yourself into the book it starts moving you toward sanctification. Sometimes you’re moving toward sanctification in an Old Testament car and sometimes it’s a New Testament car but as long as you’re in a book of the Bible, powered by the Holy Spirit, you are heading in exactly the right place.  Not only is the Gospel proclaimed from it’s pages “the power of  God unto salvation” but the Bible is also the means God uses to conform His Church to the image of His Son. To be in a car filled with other saints as we journey on to sanctification through the washing of the Word is one of the greatest privileges in this life. So please jump on board!

Click same page summer plan for the printable version.