Do you want fries or salad with your elephant?

How do you eat an elephant?

(One bite at a time).  That proverb is commonly thought to be of Chinese origin. 

Elephants are amazing creatures created by God and they are already endangered thanks to ivory poachers and other bad actors.  So I recommend you do not patronize any restaurant that has elephant on the menu.

Instead, I encourage you to read a great book by Vicki Croke (2014), “Elephant Company.”  It tells of historical events in Burma during the Second World War, as the British battled the evil Japanese Empire.  But the best parts of the book tell of the interaction between the elephants and their handlers (elephants served as the heavy construction equipment for the British and Burmese) and the interactions between the elephants themselves.  The intelligence and personalities of the elephants are presented and some events may bring a tear to your eye. 

This proverb is a word-picture for how to take on a seemingly-impossible task or project: one bite at a time.  Many people have “read the whole Bible” on their “to do” or “bucket” lists, but they are intimidated by the 1,100 pages of small font and never get around to doing it.  Good news:  various Bible publishers offer ways to read the whole Bible in a year.

Tyndale House Publishers does an especially great job at this.  They offer the “One Year Bible” in various translations and formats so that you can find the one best suited to you.  These take the complete Bible and sort it into 365 daily readings.  Each day you read something from the Old and New Testaments, Psalms and Proverbs.  For example, on March 17th you would read Numbers 26:1-51, Luke 2:36-52, Psalm 60:1-12 and Proverbs 11:15.  Typically it takes around 20 minutes for the daily reading.  The “One Year Bible” format makes it easy to keep your place in the book and stay on track.  I like this approach so much that I made the “One Year Bible” a story element within my novel The Great New Deal.

If you are interested in reading the Bible, you may want to do it soon.  The Bible is already banned in many countries and unfortunately there are many in this country who would like to do so.  In the future time period depicted by The Great New Deal, the Bible will be banned (or totally re-written by those in power, in furtherance of their evil intentions).