The Bible

A few weeks, I came to realize that I finally read the entire Bible front to back. Pretty much everyone who has an access to this blog, are Christian. And they all grew up in a Christian community. So I'm sure most of them have read the entire Bible a few times, or at least once very early on in their life.

I finally got to finish it at the age of 23. You might wonder why I took so much time? Well, I think that's a legitimate question. I probably should've finished it a long time ago. I wish I have. But the thing is, I got a totally different childhood background compared to you. Not only, I was born and raised in Japan, but I grew up in a non-Christian community. Of course, neither of my parents were Christian. To this day, they remain non-Christian. I was exactly the same way when I was younger.

If you have a taken a theology class or two, you might have heard that, only 1% of entire Japanese population is Christian. Majority of them are atheists or Buddhists. In the fast-paced life, Japanese people do not consider much about giving up time for God. As a former resident, I know exactly how it is like, and what they go through everyday. Life in Japan is very stressful. Work, social life, family, everything over there can be very draining.

Having said that, I came to realize how blessed I am. Not only, I got to be the 1%, but I got to learn what Jesus Christ exactly have done for us. There are thousands of Japanese people end their life without knowing how awesome our God is.

In both good and bad ways, we tend to get used to things we already have: Faith, friends, and education to name a few. But the reality is, we need to appreciate God for giving us everything we have. Because outside our own small world, people may be questioning their purpose of living.

I have been a Christian for about 8 years now. And I feel slightly embarrsed that I hadn't read the entire Bible a long time ago. Although, at the same, I'm grateful that I finally came to realize how great this accomplishment is.