keep on reading

Bill Crowder in our weekly chapel at RBC Ministries wonderfully reminded us this week of the Apostle Paul's devotion to reading (that being one thought in Bill's working through of Paul's last thoughts in 2 Timothy). We read from a man who knew that his end was near:

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

Paul was still reading, even with the probable bad eyesight he had, right up to the very end, still working on this or that matter. Bill reminded us of Herb Vanderlugt who right up to the end of his life was working hard on theological matters that thirty years before he had believed were settled. I remember visiting him a number of times in the hospital towards the end of his life. He was rereading N.T. Wright's three large volumes and would spend the first five minutes enthusiastically talking to me about his reading.

There are so many good authors we ought to be reading today as well as those who are gone. Some today: N.T. Wright, Mirolslav Volf, LeRon Shults, Kevin Vanhoozer, Philip Yancey and Scot McKnight readily come to mind. But there are a host of other good books and writers. Of bygone days there are so many: Augustine and Bonhoeffer are great for starters. But many, many others like G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, deserve our ongoing reading.

I like to work on books and writers that are challenging for life, and make me keep at it the rest of my days. As I heard or read once about Bonhoeffer on one of his books, it's like someone taking a straw to drink from a fire hydrant. Naturally more than we can take in, but like Scripture, which is unique this way, we work on such writings so that we can more and more grow into them in the days we have left.

So read. Reading is my favorite pastime I suppose, though many other things are much enjoyable as well. But reading is something I always like to keep near, even though I don't succeed in accomplishing nearly as much in it as I would like to.

Of course reading Scripture must come first and I take that for granted as I type this post, but we certainly can't take that for granted in our lives.

What part does reading have in your life?