By: Austen Drake – Pastor and C4 Contributor
A Case For Reading
Admittedly, I’ve always loved to read. There’s been stretches throughout my life where I didn’t do a lot of reading, but I’ve always returned to it. When I was young, I would get lost in fictional worlds, filled with knights, assassins, and exploration. As I got older, I began to wonder about events and people throughout history, so I would pick up a biography or a history book for a particular event. In college, I delved deeply into philosophy, as it was a time in my life when I was asking existential questions and I was comforted by the fact that I wasn’t alone in asking those questions. After I was saved by Jesus, I was immediately drawn to apologetics and systematic theology because I wanted to know that this faith I had received was grounded in something other than my own experience. I’ve returned to each of those genres of literature and each of them has expanded my horizon and refreshed me in some sort of way because the benefit of reading doesn’t start and end with one genre; reading, in general, is beneficial for the human mind.
Did you know that there are actually benefits to reading beyond just learning? In your brain, reading activates multiple brain systems simultaneously. In other words, reading doesn’t activate just one area of your brain, but involves multiple neural networks, including: vision, language processing, memory, attention, imagination, and emotional processing. When you read, your brain doesn’t passively take in information in the same way it does when you scroll through social media or watch videos on YouTube. Instead, your brain is actively simulating the information that you’re reading, processing it, and trying to make sense of it. In the same way, reading can reduce mental fatigue in a way that drains us from passive entertainment. This means that the mental work of constructing mental images, processing and understanding information, and integrating that information into a system of understanding engages a person in a way that leaves us feeling mentally satisfied in a way that passively taking in information from videos and podcasts cannot achieve.
Read Old Books
Of all the books that can be read, and there are many, I would commend old books to you. From theology to fiction, there is a reason these books have stood the test of time. They are the best of our stories, the most persuasive of our arguments, and some of the greatest minds that humanity has to offer chose to put pen to paper. This is what they’ve left us. This is what they chose to write down because they thought it to be of the utmost importance. We have so much to learn from them if only we’ll open their books.
Of course, new books can have these same ear marks of genius and persuasion and captivating stories, but they haven’t stood the same test of time. One day, they may be books that are well-worn, unfazed by the wear of time, yet that’s not the case today. So read old books. C.S. Lewis says it this way,
There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato’s off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said…This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Marita in or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself.
Not only must we read old books, but we must read old, theological books. We have to read the Church Fathers, we have to read the Reformers, the Waldensians, the Dutch Reformers, the Desert Mothers, and the Desert Fathers. What we know, we know because we stand on the backs of giants, but many of us don’t know that we stand on their backs. We know what we see but we’ve never looked down to see how it is that we have this view. By reading old books from old men and women that have long since passed away, we understand our vantage point better.
Read Non-Fiction
There’s a popular saying, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The book of Ecclesiastes says something similar, albeit differently, saying, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Two different ways to say the same thing – the events of humanity’s past took place in different contexts with different priorities, but the choices were the same. They’re the same choices that we face today and that our kids will face in the future. As leaders, it’s our duty to learn from them so that we can either follow in their footsteps or learn from their missteps.
The further back in history we read, the more we’ll see a different perspective to view our lives through. It opens up the landscape of our decisions. When you feel stuck and not knowing where to turn or what decision to make, you would do well to read of someone who has sat in your chair to see how they thought about this problem.
Read Fiction
There’s some speculation that reading fiction actually enhances empathy. It improves the theory of mind, which is the cognitive ability to attribute mental states – such as beliefs, intents, desires, and emotions – to yourself and others. Fiction also works as a commentary on sociopolitical discourse. If you struggle to relate to the struggles that others are facing, I would commend fiction to you. Read authors like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens. Read fantasy series from Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan. Read fiction because it’s going to help you understand other people’s plights and your heart will remain tender for the people that you pastor.
Your Challenge
If you aren’t a reader, there’s no better time to start than the present. One of the best habits that you can form is to begin reading. It will aid your vocabulary, your mental capacity, your focus, and much, much more. Research shows that, on average, it takes about 66 days to form a habit.
Try this: Read 5-10 pages out of a book every day. Start with whatever genre you think will be easiest to build the habit. For me, as a boy, it was getting lost in fictional worlds. For you, it may be finding different men and women pondering life’s existential questions. Start with the idea or plot that most intrigues you and read 5-10 pages out of a book for 66 days straight. If you read only 10 pages per day for 2 months, you’ll have read the equivalent of a 660-page book! If you choose to read something that’s more dense, like philosophy or theology, you may opt for reading 5 pages per day. This is no small feat because if you stick to it for 66 days then you’ll still have read 330 pages of a dense book! So take up the challenge because you’ll be better for it and your congregation will be better for you investing in yourself.