reading

Is reading a necessity or a luxury? I know a number of folks who say they are too busy to read any books. I can't go a day without reading a book of good fiction, history, biblical/theological, leadership or current events type let alone the Bible.

I think about the technological change that drove the Protestant Reformation...the printing press. Have we abandoned that gift of being able to read to push the reaches of mind and heart? There were many who lost their lives for creating books, and particularly Bibles that the masses were able to read.

The press of our own busy activities seems to have made reading a luxury or an optional leisure time activity. Thus we miss the opportunity to be pushed beyond ourselves, to grow, to meet the divine creavtiveness of God through writers of so many genres.

Books are a gift. I am one who clearly is an advocate of computers and the internet, but not at the expense of good books. Books and reading are neither a necessity or a luxury. They are an experience of growing as children of God and disciples/apostles of Jesus.

Along with daily devotional and physical exercises, daily reading (beyond the news) of good literature is part of the discipline spiritually alive, growing and changing people do. No wonder one of the first things oppresive regimes do is to burn the books of good literature and challenging opinions. In our work/task obsessive lives, I worry that instead of burning such books, that we have abandoned them instead.

O God, help us to devote time to reading and learning from your Word and from your words throughout the ages.

Right now I am reading a wonderful book Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds by Harold Bloom. It is well worth the time to read it!