This past summer I heard Jerry Jenkins, the dude who wrote Billy Graham’s biography (Just As I Am), dole out the best Bible-reading advice I’ve ever heard.

So much advice out there is to get on a schedule, to slot God in, to become legalistic about one of God’s most life-giving books. If you think about it, aside from God’s grace, scripture has probably been abused more than any other divine gift. So what’s Billy Graham’s secret?

Simple: He just left a Bible open on the counter. Seriously.

So he’d go get a glass of milk, see his Bible, wander over to it, and read a few lines. Chew on them while sipping the milk. And then he was off. On his way to the mail, there was his Bible. Read another verse, or maybe read the last few over again. Ponder them while walking to the mailbox. Back to work. Find it again before lunch. Read some more.

That’s really cool. Try it sometime. I have, and it’s really neat. When it’s open, it’s somehow easier to hear and sense God’s pull toward it and respond.