reading

Reading in this day and age of entertainment is not popular. Though more reading is done overall in recent years because of the Internet I suppose, yet other pastimes dominate on it, I would think. Not that games or movies and other entertainment are necessarily bad in themselves. I'm beginning to learn to enjoy games much more.

But reading takes us to new places and stirs us in the way of Jesus. Reading stirs us in all kinds of ways in that way. I often find in my reading that I have to press through parts that are tedious or to which I don't connect that well. The rewards are there as I do. There is not much better than sitting or for me, laying on the couch with book in hand and some Mozart or whatever playing in the background. At work I fellowship while I'm working, and on breaks and at lunch lately, I read while I eat. We have a great public library system covering a good portion of our part of the state from which I and my wife Deb order online, and then can walk to our nearby library and pick up when it comes in. Add to that the college libraries in the area, particularly for theology, along with an excellent Christian scholar's bookstore (and more), and we're blessed in this area.

I've been told I read too much. This is by people who either don't read themselves so don't see its value well, or perhaps think I'm reading the wrong things. Of course, as a Christian I believe we need to be first and foremost readers of God's word, Scripture. I've been doing that by listening to the Bible Experience, as well as going over my Bible (and Greek New Testament) at work as I can. We're all different, so some of us will be readers and others not so much so. But we all need to value reading, and not despise it, even if it means reading slowly. Actually the best reading is done slowly I think. John Wesley was known for reading slowly, as he did so on horseback, brilliant mind and learning that he had. So we should take heart and keep building little by little in our reading. Better to get what little we're reading than read in large swaths and get only the gist of it.

And don't measure your reading by what you remember. Often it comes to you as you need it. And reading has its value in its impact. In the end the content in some way has to become your own. A part of your thinking and value and worldview. This requires discernment, and patience, as well as some hard work. And it requires a thirst for knowing what God might want us to know in Jesus. For me that includes all kinds of reading, theoretically. From Christians and non Christians there is much we can learn, much that can be helpful to us, as we remain those committed to God in Christ through the Spirit in community and on mission in this world.

What about your experience and thoughts on reading?