Got Reading?

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+29:12&version=NIV1984

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+15:31&version=NIV1984

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Thessalonians+5:27&version=NIV1984

I have had a love affair for most of my life.  I think my wife suspects it.  It’s a love affair with reading.  I remember when I was in elementary school and the book club papers came out.  I immediately wanted about 10 of the books listed.  There may have been 20 total.  I would take the paper home and circle the books I wanted.  Then my dad would send the money, along with the order, with me to school.  You know that I made sure that nothing happened to that envelope!  I went and grabbed one of those first books from my shelf.  Yes I still have them.  A book lover would never get rid of a book!  The title is The Little Fish That Got Away.  The book was published in 1962.  And cost all of 35¢.  Just the fact that I still have the book tells you that I took care of it.  The last year or so I have even read it to my grandchildren.

Yes, I love to read.  I don’t know why some people take to reading and some don’t?  Sometimes it’s because people are poor readers.  They just don’t recognize words very well.  Maybe they even have a little dyslexia going on.  Or perhaps they have short attention spans.  But there are other people who are good readers who simply don’t like to read.  In fact, according to one article that I read, an Associated Press poll in our country found that 25% of all Americans surveyed didn’t read a single book in 2006.  Not one.  Of the remaining 75%, the average amount of books read was 4.  It depends on the year and the length of the book but I usually read between 16 to 20 books per year.  I would probably read more but so much of the reading that I do is for ministry.  With these kinds of books, and all the information and thinking required, I usually can only read 1 chapter a day.  Now, give me a biography or a historical book and it’s a different story.  I can barely put the book down.  Yes, count me in the reading camp.  In fact, I would much read than watch TV.  Seriously.  There is nothing I love more than curling up with a good book.  (OK, curling up with my wife ranks right up there too!)  Someday when I retire I’m hoping to do a lot more reading.

I have heard it said often over the years that people who love to read are generally smarter and better equipped to handle life than those who don’t.  Intuitively I know this to be true.  In my own life I couldn’t even begin to assess how much benefit I have received from reading.  So I decided to do a little research on the subject and found quite a bit of information.  The following are some of the advantages of reading - which is what you are doing right now!  Way to go!  (Some of the information came from the website, Persistence Unlimited by Brad Isaac.)

1.    Reading makes you smarter.  In study after study people who read have higher GPA’s, higher intelligence, and general knowledge than those that don’t.  Enough said.

2.    Improves thinking.  Being able to grasp ideas, concepts or scenarios that are presented in a book requires that we think.  All the time we are reading our mind is constantly working.  It is trying to absorb new concepts or ideas.  We also critique what we are reading.  Is it true?  Does it line up with what I already know?  How is the story going to end?

3.    Improves concentration.  When you read you have to focus.  That takes discipline.  Whether it’s a technical book or a novel your mind is continually concentrating in order to follow the ideas or story being presented.

4.    A better vocabulary.  The more you read the greater your vocabulary.  If you are like me, when you come across a word you don’t know you look it up.

5.    Better writing skills.  The more you read the better you can write.  You know instinctively how to construct a sentence.  When it looks good and when it doesn’t.

6.    Increases creativity.  How many of us have read a book only to have it later made into a movie - and we are disappointed?  Part of the reason why is that when we read, our mind supplies mental images of the characters and/or places we are reading about.  Then the movie comes out and they have it all wrong!

7.    Can change our life.  There are millions of people whose lives were seriously changed all by reading a particular book.  It gave them an idea.  Or a new perspective.  It helped launch a whole new career path.

There are other advantages to reading as well but I think you get the point.  Tomorrow I want to take reading and couple it with God’s Word.  That is a powerful combination!

Lord, I thank you for reading.  What a wonderful way to learn.  Grow.  Dream.  Relax.  I thank you for the ability that You have given me to read.  And the books that You have brought my way.  How they have helped enlighten me.  Challenge me.  Inspire me.  I especially thank you for Your Word.  The greatest book I have ever read.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.