Barry's Blog

After having gone without shaving for 381 days, A. J. Jacobs said he felt like a "hedgehog" had been attached to his face. Now his black beard is safely stowed away in a Ziploc bag, a souvenir of his year-long endeavor to follow the Bible literally in obeying what he refers to the Bible's more than 600 precepts.

Jacobs, 39, a self-proclaimed agnostic and writer who works for Esquire, is no stranger to "immersion" journalism. His book, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Man in the World, recounted his months reading all 44 million words of Encyclopedia Britannica. His current offering is similarly titled, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (Simon & Schuster, $25).

To help him attempt to live every facet of life based on a strict interpretation of the Bible, Jacobs had a spiritual advisory board consisting of priests, rabbis, and ministers. The Manhattan-based Jacobs also went on field trips, visiting with Jehovah's Witnesses, Hasidic Jews, the Amish, Samaritans, and evangelical Christians. Of these experiences, he says, "I learned to be more tolerant. Handling snakes doesn't seem as crazy when you're seeing it firsthand."

The most unexpectedly wise and life-enhancing rules? 1) "Keep the sabbath: As a workaholic (I check emails in the middle of movies), I learned the beauty of an enforced pause in the week. No cell phones, no messages, no deadlines...as one famous rabbi called it, the sabbath is a 'sanctuary in time.'" 2) "Let your garments be always white" (Ecclesiastes 9:8) "I chose to follow this literally-white pants, white shirt, white jacket. This was one of the best things I did all year. I felt lighter, happier, purer...You can't be in a bad mood when you're dressed like you're about to play the semifinals at Wimbledon." 3) "No images: I tried to eliminate photos, TV, movies, doodling. It made me realize we're too visual in this culture. It made me fall in love once again with words, with text."

Biggest challenge? Jacobs offers: "That would be no coveting, no lying, no gossiping. They're little sins, but they're killers. You shall not covet. This is like asking someone not to breathe. Especially in New York. New York is a city that runs on coveting...You shall not lie. Once I started keeping track, the number of lies was astounding. I lie to everyone-strangers, my wife, my three-year-old son ('No, we can't watch TV. It's broken')."

The takeaway of the story? Jacobs' year-long experiment is more than sufficient testimony that none of us have ever lived the good life. We can't earn our righteousness through good deeds, but can only receive it from the hand of a benevolent God. Frederick Buechner says it so well: "Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth...The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't be complete without you...There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it..."

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow

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