The Role of Reading in the Life of the Busy Believer

After the recent post on my visit to the majestic Mohler museum and library, a friend emailed me the following question:

I have many friends who are passionate followers of Jesus, who do and have worked in the market place for years, and who feel tremendous guilt when they read about Mohler's reading habits.  Personally, I believe that there are people who waste five or six hours a day doing other things and that this can be redeemed by reading.  However, I would postulate that reading in and of itself has become in scholarly circles and many Christian circles a type of idol that people devote inordinate amounts of time to when they could be actively involved in people's lives.  I fully embrace a view of reading that Paul had (Ephesians 3:4-5) and one that can be extrapolated from the wisdom literature concerning walking with the wise.  I also realize that immersing oneself in various literature can inspire and prepare you for untold opportunities to speak into other people's lives. That being said what place in the average believer's life do you think reading should have?

 

Great question, and one that deserves an answer. The following is my response (with some minor additions and/or clarifications to our original interaction):

 

Short Answer

For the average believer, whether one reads or does not read is not the issue as much as the importance of developing a lifestyle of learning and growing and pursuing Christ in all areas of life, instead of passively wandering through the motions of the Christian life.  With great audio books, sermons, and interviews, reading as a means of Christian growth is not as critical as it once was.  The question becomes, are people passionately pursuing Christ and taking advantage of the available resources for growth?  Long commutes or time on the treadmill can easily be turned into 30 minutes a day of rich mentoring and resourcing through audio content and books that are so readily available.  Reading should serve and help, and balance must be sought in this pursuit (I Cor. 6:12).  For instance, a man in his 30's with a job, wife and kids should use whatever free time he has to grow in his Biblical leadership in those areas, making sure to prioritize them along with his own growth as a follower of Christ. The temptation for many men in this stage of life is to become overly focused on the 'job' part - taking time from the other areas and attempting to justify their neglect of their family. I would encourage any man to take a good hard look at their calendar and see if they are truly carving out the time they need to really learn and grow and lead their family well, whether that means reading or not.

 

Other Thoughts

When reading about Mohler's habits, the temptation for some is to feel guilty about their own habit. However, some have the opposite response to Mohler of being inspired by his example. I find myself being inspired, rather than laden with guilt, because I realize I could be much more productive with my time.  I also remind myself that Mohler certainly has a gift for reading and consuming information.  I cannot read 3 books a night like Mohler, but neither can I dunk a ball like Lebron (or anybody for that matter).  That does not mean I shouldn't lace up the sneaks and try to improve my jump shot occasionally and likewise try to improve my reading skills.

 

It is also important to note that for Mohler and other teachers, reading is more than just a sharpening tool, it is almost a requirement of their work.  It is really at the core of his job.  He turns around and spits back out everything he reads on his blog, on the radio, in the pulpit, in book reviews, in articles, in books he writes, and to faculty and staff at the seminary all day long.  He is essentially paid to read.  That should remove some of the guilt for some.  Though I would say that those in the market place could likely do more reading in their field (and I'm sure they would agree).

 

There is a difference between guilt and healthy pressure.  It's ok to feel pressure to do something if one should be doing more of it.  It is not ok to feel guilty for doing something that we should not be doing (or an activity that should be considered optional).  The issue that all believers should feel a healthy pressure about is growth in the area of expertise that the Lord has given to us.

 

Of course anything can become an idol.  Reading can become an idol for sure, as can the act of avoiding reading.  But I believe that many people, especially men, have not really tried to learn to really love reading. But this can change.  Just last year I watched a man go from abhorring reading (A college jock type - awesome basketball player) to a place where he recognizes how important it is and cannot stop reading now.

 

On a personal level, reading has always been my favorite hobby.  Nothing calms me as much (maybe lifting weights is a close second).  So anytime I have free time, I'm reading.  TV stresses me out, so we don't have one.  Reading calms me.  However everyone is wired differently.

Great article on Reading with Kids

Check out this article on one man's commitment to read nightly with his daughter and what it meant to them.  Certainly inspiring, though I wonder how things might have turned out with his marriage had he maintained a similar practice with his wife.

Baby Race

Friday morning at 5:30 AM Julie’s water broke.  My first thought was “well, here’s the start of another loooong day,” since JI’s birth came 22 hours after his water broke.  But Caroline had a different plan.  I was on the phone with a friend at 8 AM, still thinking we had plenty of time, when Julie said “I think we’re having this baby today.”  Thirty minutes later the contractions were coming in waves, so we shipped John Isaac off to a friend’s house, assembled some belongings and prepared for the trip to the hospital.  In the midst of getting ready my brother in Kentucky calls and informs me they are at the hospital ready to deliver their baby!  The race was on – who would go first?  (Competition never gets old between brothers).

We were waiting for the Birthing Assistant (B.A. hereafter) to arrive before departing, but I wasn’t sure if we would be able to wait at this point – the contractions just kept coming, one after another, and Julie wasn’t getting any relief.  The B.A. arrived around 9:30 and knew right away that it WAS TIME TO GO.  We loaded Julie in the van and took off (though my driving was well controlled, as the B.A. commented afterwards).  I didn't know it at the time, but the B.A. was discretely calling another B.A. that was following behind us in a car, telling her to call the hospital and warn them that we were coming.  She told us later that she was for sure Julie would have the baby in the van!  

Julie was glad to be on the way, but not happy at all about the 47 speed bumps in the hospital parking lot.  When we parked at the entrance, I dashed off and retrieved a wheel chair, only to be informed by my wife that, “I can’t get out!”  Well, we’re not having this baby here – not when we're this close to having her nosocomial - so we all lifted various body parts and helped her into the chair.  We proceeded down the loooong hallway, up the elevator and pulled into the maternity ward at almost 10 AM.  Recognizing her condition, everyone jumped to attention and started helping right away.  A few minutes later she was in the delivery room and ready to go.  The Lord was so gracious to have some of the kindest, gentlest nurses in the room with us – they were so sensitive to her condition.  They immediately checked her and she was already fully dilated!!!!  Julie wasn’t kidding – we would be having a baby THAT DAY.

After many complications from delivering John Isaac with drugs, my amazing wife was dead set on having this baby o-natural.  Now, I’ve heard all the horror stories of women snapping at their husbands in this condition, so I was on my best behavior, not wanting to do anything to frustrate her.  I must have said a thousand times “you’re doing a great job!” and meant it every time.  She amazed me with her resilience and focus – I was truly inspired and became “choked up” many times just watching her endure the pain.  All the material we read beforehand  said there would come a point when she would say “I can’t do this – I can’t go on!”  but she blew right past that point, only hinting at it right at the very end.  She started pushing at 11:30 – and at 12:01, we had our girl!

The only down side of the entire morning was the flurry of messages that came in right before Julie started pushing: my brother’s daughter was just delivered.  They beat us by 37 minutes!  Oh well, you can’t win them all.  I guess it wasn’t a total loss, as Caroline was heavier by 3 ounces.

We spent the night in the hospital and made it home Saturday afternoon with no problems.  Please pray for a speedy recovery for my wife.

Two Books of Note

Just noticed that Edmund Morris' third biography on Theodore Roosevelt, called Colonel Roosevelt, is available for pre-order on Amazon.  Having read the first two volumes, I'm sure this one will be worth the time and effort to ingest.  This volume will cover his life from the end of his presidency till his death in 1919 (volume one covered his birth to the start of his Presidency at McKinley's death, volume two covered his Presidency.)


Another book of note is a new biography about Dietrich Bonhoeffer , called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.  The book was recommended to me by a friend after reading this review on the Wall Street Journal.  The reviewer appreciated Metaxas' efforts to paint Bonhoeffer's faith in a fairer light than others have done (at least according to the reviewer).  Interesting note on Mr. Metaxas:  he has also written for Veggie Tales, has written over 30 children's books, and a best-selling bio on William Wilberforce.

The Bat Cave of Evangelicalism

Forgive me while I gush.  A few weeks ago, i joined a co-worker in Louisville to interview Al Mohler for a new video based marriage conference FamilyLife is producing.  While there we had the chance to visit Dr. Mohler’s personal library in the basement of his home (what Ligon Duncan refers to as “the bat cave of evangelicalism”).
 

His personal librarian (yes, that’s what I said) gave the current volume count at 40,550 volumes, though he hedged with the disclaimer that “hundreds of books come in a month.”

 His Desk (on the right side of the picture)

His Churchill “section” (pic on right) contained over four hundred books by or about the man.  And the collectibles were everywhere.  In one corner was a pile of leather briefcases “to give to friends.”  On a desk were dozens of fountain pens.  Model ships, airplanes and busts protruded from every corner and were perilously perched on every possible ledge.  It was glorious and dangerous at the same time. 

Mohler consumes books like a five year-old eats candy on Halloween.  I asked about his reading schedule - he settles into his favorite reading chair around 11 PM or midnight [see pic of his 'current reading’ stack on left] and reads till 4 or 5 AM, then sleeps till 9 or 10 before heading to the office.  How many books a night does he read?  “Usually 3 or so.”  Not from 3 books - but 3 from start to finish.  You can read Mohler’s comments on his reading habits here.

One of his reading suggestions I’ve followed is to find an author you enjoy and read everything you can that they have written.  One of those authors for me has been David McCullough, who says, “you are what you read” (his bio on Truman is my favorite of his works).  McCullough is a throwback author who still uses a typewriter, partly because he knows he needs to “go more slowly” (read this interview about his typewriter here).  If one of the greatest writers of our time (one journalist said “he is incapable of writing an incorrect sentence") needs to go more slowly, let all others take heed!

Mohler also asserts that “reading will save your life.”  This proved true on one of my all time favorite FamilyLife Today radio interviews where Mark Hamby, founder and director of Lamplighter publishing tells his journey from not reading a single book in high school to being addicted to books.  The story is both entertaining and inspiring, and each re-airing on FamilyLife Today produces a run on Lamplighter books, one of which was Ronald Reagan’s favorite book, That Printer of Udell’s.  Reagan read the book as a young boy, and when he put it down, he said “I want to be like that man.”  That’s what a great book does; inspires you to want to live differently.  Those are hard to find, but those are the ones that are worth reading.  This week I read A Confederacy of Dunces.  It was entertaining, well written, with an intriguing plot-line, but not inspiring.  Nothing about the story made me want to emulate anyone.  None of the characters were redeemable - even at the end - when someone usually comes out changed and motivated to live differently, none had changed.  Their situations had, and they had largely stumbled into new situations, but their inner character had not changed.

This is contra every book I have read about Teddy Roosevelt.  Almost everything about his life inspires me to want to live differently and to want to read more about him!

Al Mohler - Study Tour from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Hatchet: Boys to Men

I'm always on a hunt for good books to read with my 5 year old son. I recently ran across the Art of Manliness blog and their list of books for boys. On this list was the book Hatchet. It's your basic "lost in the wilderness" survival story - except that the main character is a 13 year old boy. With recently divorced parents, he's off to visit his father in Canada. The pilot of the small plane has a heart attack, veering the plane hundreds of miles off course in the Canadian wilderness. The boy survives the crash, with only his Hatchet to help him endure the rugged nature. 

Now stay with me here, because though the story is interesting (and kept my son UBER engaged… especially since I skipped over most of the divorce parts) the more relevant part is his journey of self-discovery and what it says about the modern man.

Leanord Sax, in his book Boys Adrift (which I HIGHLY recommend to all parents of boys) tries to get at the root issue behind the increase of apathy among boys. He says "the boys I'm most concerned about don't disdain school because they have other real-world activities they care about more. They disdain school because they disdain everything. Nothing really excites them." Why is that? He cites a number of factors: changes in the education system, video games, medications, foods. He has a chapter on each of these topics, as well as one addressing the issue he calls "Failure to Launch," where boys are not launching into manhood until their late 30's.

I believe there are two main contributing factors to this increase among elongated adolescence: excessive consumerism and the fact that most boys are not being called up to anything of significant value in their minds. Consumerism: my friend David Sims, who did a PhD on the effects of affluence on children, says "consuming deadens the senses." Makes sense. If you always eat sugar, you'll never want vegetables. If you always watch dribble on the tube, you'll have little interest in fine literature and poetry. If everything is handed to you, then why work for it? (as Matthew McConoghay said, "It's gonna take a stick of dynamite to get me out of my parent's house"). The increase in boys having little drive for things of significance is striking. For instance, very few boys have interest in pursuing traditional "trades" (electrician, plumbing). College is often promoted as the only real option in schools if you want to really be somebody. Yet the trades are often the most satisfying jobs for men, because of the immediacy of seeing the results of your work. Matthew Crawford, in his book Shop Class as Soulcraft argues that a career in the trades is "better for both your net worth and your self-worth." These trade jobs are increasingly more secure, since "You can't hammer a nail over the Internet. Nor can the Indians fix your car. Because they are in India."

The appeal of cubicle life is declining as well. The combination of the two declining interests leaves many young men with little interest in pursuing anything. Combine this with a free ride at mom and dad's, and you have a legion of 30 year old boys. Men and boys alike long for the kind of work that William Voegeli describes in the Claremont journal as "the kinds of work we can most readily imagine ourselves getting lost in and being proud of." But how does one find this kind of work?

Leonard Sax, in his previous book Why Gender Matters (a must read for ALL parents) address the ability of boys to concentrate for extended periods. Most boys, especially those with ADD/ADHD are not able to concentrate for extended periods. But Sax's contention is that they are able to concentrate on the things that interest them. He tells the story of a young boy with ADD on multiple meds. His grades were suffering and he was depressed. His parents sent him to South Africa for the summer to work with a safari guide. He was there two days and the guide said "get rid of the meds, you don't need them." The next day he followed a group of natives in the woods and sat motionless for hours as he prepared to kill a bird with a spear. This is the same boy that one week earlier couldn't sit still 10 minutes in the classroom.

And here is where Hatchet returns. This 13 year old boy, having had everything handed to him and done for him up to this point in his life, for the first time becomes aware of all of life's basic necessities that he has taken for granted: food, shelter, protection from harm. He quickly gains great interest in providing for himself and works tirelessly, day after day to make sure he survives. He went through a long process of "inventing" the bow and arrow to learn to catch fish and birds. But he notices a point where he changes. He turns from the "old Brian" - a boy that passively passes through life, noticing little about what occurs around him, to a boy-man with sharpened senses. He says, there was now a "changed part of him, a grown part of him, and the two things, his mind and his body, had come together as well, [they] had made a connection with each other that he didn't quite understand." He observes, after being rescued and returning home, that he "gained immensely in his ability to observe what was happening and react to it; that would last him all his life. He had become more thoughtful as well, and from that time on he would think slowly about something before speaking." He returned home and spent hours researching all the things he consumed and experienced in the wilderness - learning their real names. His interest and focus sharpened because he was forced to survive. And this changed him.

Muscles grow under tension, and we often remove this necessary tension from the muscle of our minds in a consumer based society. I can say from experience that my seminary education meant FAR more to me and I was much more intentional with it than my college education partly because I had to pay for it! [not that I'm not grateful for college mom and dad!] My decisions about classes and dollars spent were very different when I was footing the bill. As a result, my views on the necessity of a college education are evolving - especially knowing that many parents are primarily bankrolling a 4 year party (listen to this episode of This American Life.)

So read Hatchet to your boys and enjoy it as well and ask yourself how you can reduce excessive consumption in your life and the lives of your children and reduce the clutter in your soul.

Self Suspicion

“I should be primarily suspicious and regularly suspicious of myself!  To be suspicious of my own heart is to acknowledge two things:  that my heart has a central role in my behavior, and that my heart has a permanent tendency to oppose God and his ways.”

From When Sinners Say I Do, by Dave Harvey, p64.

On putting books on hold...

My son and I have been reading through The Hobbit.  We finished it this afternoon, and tonight he said, "Ok, now we're ready to read through The Lord of the Rings (TLOTR)."  I reminded him that it is a REALLY long book, and that this version has no pictures.  He says he knows, but wants to read it, because "now I know who Bilbo Baggins is."  He then reminded me that we began reading TLOTR over 6 months ago, and that the first words in the book were "Bilbo Baggins", and, he says, "Now that I  know who Bilbo is, we can read TLOTR."  Sure enough, I opened to the first page, and the first sentence introduces Bilbo Baggins.

Now, I understand the importance of putting off an item of interest until one is ready to enjoy it the most, but most 5 year-olds have no context for such endeavors.  A good lesson learned today by all in the family. 

Chandler on the Gospel

I preached Sunday on Luke 11:5-13, a passage that immediately follows Jesus' giving of the Lord's prayer.  While preparing to preach I listened to Matt Chandlers sermon on the same passage and he made this statement about the gospel: 

The gospel is not that if you love Jesus then you'll get everything you want. The gospel is that you'll get Jesus and he will be enough no matter what.

Well said Mr. Chandler, well said.

World War Two Books

This week I finished a book called The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans. It's the third in a series on the Third Reich by a history professor from Cambridge. This volume addressed the years from 1939 to the end of the war in 1945. At 900 pages, it is thoroughly researched and heavily referenced, yet also easy to read. But the title is a bit misleading. Evans certainly deals with the "war" part of the war, but if the title was meant to described the content of this book, then it would likely be named, How the Germans Killed Lots of People During WWII. The level of detail Evans provides throughout the book on both how they were put to death and the amount of people killed is overwhelming at times. I know, sounds encouraging. So why would you want to read this? After turning the last page and closing the cover I thought "more people must read this book. Especially high school students." It is too easy to forget the atrocities this world has endured, especially when we live in such a comfortable time. No culture that forgets God is very far away from repeating the acts of the Nazis. In fact, the book makes a pretty strong case for Hitler being primarily driven in his desire to eliminate the Jews by his Darwinistic convictions related to the 'survival of the fittest' and the need to protect the integrity of the master race. 

Evans concludes the book this way:

The Legacy of the Third Reich… extends far beyond Germany and Europe. The Third Reich raises in the most acute form the possibilities and consequences of the human hatred and destructiveness that exist, even if only in a small way, within all of us. It demonstrates with terrible clarity the ultimate potential consequences of racism, militarism and authoritarianism. It shows what can happen if some people are treated as less human than others. It poses in the most extreme possible form the moral dilemmas we all face at one time or another in our lives, of conformity or resistance, action or inaction in the particular situations with which we are confronted.

Or, to summarize, it shows what happens when sin reigns and controls a nation.

Though the book is very readable, the literary quality pales in comparison to the WWII book I completed just prior to picking up the Evans volume. For my 2009 birthday, my parents bought the six-volume set Churchill wrote on the history of WWII. I finished volume one in December and picked up Evans immediately afterwards. Churchill is a master writer, one of my favorites (in fact, one friend recently accused me of having "a man crush" on Churchill) and his ability to turn a phrase is among the best in the English language. Churchill had a team of writers accompany him on this book, and these guys were no slouches. Read what they said about Churchill's influence on their writing style in this work:

From the Foreign Office, Sir Orme Sargent and Professor Savory submitted notes on Britain, Poland and the coming of war.  Sir Alexander Cadogan sent extracts from his then unpublished diary of the Churchill-Roosevelt meeting in 1941.  From Cambridge, Professor Goodwin, a former flight-Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, submitted a 150-page account of the Blitz.  Kelly was given the task of reducing this to three typewritten sheets. 'They seemed quite good', Kelly recalled, 'till I sat beside him and he pulled out his red pen and slowly and patiently corrected what I had written.  My sloppy, verbose sentences disappeared.  Each paragraph was tightened and clarified, and their true meaning suddenly stood out. It was like watching a skillful topiarist restoring a neglected and untidy garden-figure to its true shape and proportions.  In the middle of this penitential process he gently turned to me and said: 'I hope you don't mind me doing this?'

 

Finally, I'm in the process of re-reading The Red Horse, a novel about the Italian involvement in WWII. This is likely the best work of literature I've ever read. I'd put it up against all the great classics: War and Peace, Les Miserables, the Count of Monte Cristo. This is one of the few novels I have ever read a second time. It apparently won an award as the "European novel of the decade" (though I've not been able to find the evidence of the award recognition). The first time reading this book, after putting it down, I felt like I had lost a good friend, not wanting the story to end or the people to go away. If you have wanted to tackle a larger novel but haven't found the right one, this would be a good one to try.

On a humorous note (maybe), my son occasionally asks about the books I'm reading. Since WWII themes have lately dominated this list, much of my responses are related to War History. So occasionally the Nazis will come up and we will discuss who they were and what they did, trying to keep the conversation within the realm of what a 5 year old can handle. Last week he had a new friend over to play. They began in his room and within a few minutes he came out crying frantically and wringing his hands. Julie asks "whatever is the matter?" The child said, "Are the Nazis going to kill me? Please tell me they are not real! Please?" Apparently our son was trying to teach his new friend a little war history. Julie calmed him down and the boys went back to playing together. Now, I can only imagine how the conversation went down that night in their home…