I love to read. I love that my kids love to read. This blog is really just me sharing what I read. This is the second year of my effort to read my age in books every year. Last year I made it, but this year is looking doubtful. Lately I've noticed a bothersome tendency in my reading: I'm reading to get finished instead of reading to get changed. (I was introduced to this idea by Jeremy Kingsley, with whom I went to college. I didn't know Jeremy that well, but I've listened to several of his messages through the Columbia International University podcast.) Now obviously everything I read isn't going to result in earth-shaking life transformation. Sometimes I read just for fun. But I usually read to learn and in learning to be changed. Yet I have found myself reading to get done instead.- I often look to see what percentage read number on my Kindle
- I delight in checking off the boxes on my Bible Reading Plan
- I often scan to see how many chapters I have left, even of a book I'm enjoying.
- Every time I add a book to my 2010 Books Read document I count to see how many I've read
I'm wondering why I do this because I'm a bit frustrated with myself! At heart it probably comes from my sinful desire to depend on my works to satisfy God and justify myself before Him and people. I want to check lists in order to feel like I have done my spiritual, intellectual and social duty. Other than preach the gospel to myself, I'm wondering what I need to do.
- Do I need to slow down, meditate more and not worry about quantity?
- Do I need to regularly remind myself that Bible is about relationship, which cannot be "checked off"?
- Do I need to get rid of the plan and the list?
- Do I need to put a piece of tape over the percentage read number on my Kindle?
A friend of mine once told me, "Next year you will be the same person you are now except for the places you go, the people you meet and the books you read." That's not the whole story, but there's some wisdom to that. I'm praying that I'll not start putting people and places in check boxes and on lists too!
2 comments:
So what did you do? Did you slow down? Did you meditate more and not worry about quantity?
Your blog on Bonhoeffer mentions his daily habit of meditating on only one or two verses. That's a richness worth emulating. It doesn't sound like he was aiming for quantity at all, at least in that one realm.
I've entered a phase of doing both:
1) a deep study with commentaries & hard questions;
2) (newer, just started) a longer reading, yet pausing to meditate/pray or search out something of interest if it comes up that day.
It's new, but I'm finding it so far to be the best, richest experience in the Word of my life.
It also takes a lot of time, but I'm desperately hoping that I don't move away from it later because of the time it takes.
I'm meditating and praying Scripture more. For me the two go hand in hand. I haven't necessarily been concerned less with quantity, but I have been thinking about what kind of books I'm reading and how I will read them. Some books I read with a pen in hand, underlining and taking notes. Some I read with no thought of doing either of these. Some I read doing something in between.
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