Reading - Outdated or Underestimated?

Why Read?

In the highly visual age in which we live, the question is one that many may pose. Isn’t reading outdated, considering that we now have at our disposal numerous, more ‘time effective’ methods of learning? Has visual technology replaced our need for reading?

I would argue ‘no’.

Why?

In the highly automotive age in which we live, have cars replaced our need for physical exercise?

Just as physical exercise benefits us in a way that cars cannot, I believe that reading benefits us in a way that visual learning cannot. Am I against cars? No! Am I against podcasts, vodcasts, YouTube and the like? No! I simply believe that the advent of the new does not render the old irrelevant.

So, why do I believe in reading?

1. Reading Enhances the Gift of Intellect

I believe that wise stewardship of entrusted resources is our responsibility before God. We talk much of our responsibility to steward our finance and giftedness, yet little focus is given to the stewardship of our intellect, which is one of the greatest resources God has entrusted to us.

In his book Christian Behavior, C.S. Lewis writes:

“It is quite true that God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants everyone to use what sense they have. God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers.”

2. Reading Stimulates Fresh Inspiration

This point is true particularly in the genre of biography. Sir William Robertson Nicoll (Scottish pastor and journalist, 1851-1923) writes, the “lives of great men still remind us that we may make our lives sublime.” Is it possible to read the biographies of truly great men and not be inspired?

American pastor, author and co-founder of the Fuller Theological Seminary Harold Ockenga said, “Read to refill the wells of inspiration.” So convinced was he of the merits of reading, he took a suitcase full of books on his honeymoon! (I can’t say that I will follow your lead Harold)

3. Reading Facilitates Fellowship with Great Minds

To perceive reading as simply the assimilation of text is a great error. Instead, consider reading as a doorway into the minds and thought processes of history’s most brilliant and effective people. This is an opportunity too good to miss!

J. Oswald Sanders writes, “It is possible to hold communion with the greatest and godliest of men of all ages through the medium of their writings.”

More points soon...