So why don’t we read more?
We don’t take the fourth step.
4. Execute.
In my book “A Mind for God,” I have an entire section on how to read more. It includes practical steps like turning off the TV or shutting down your phone. It involves carrying reading material with you wherever you go so that you can take advantage of empty pockets of time in waiting rooms or lines. It means putting books around your home and office so that they are always there, reminding you and encouraging you to pick up and read.
And perhaps most of all, it means setting aside a particular time—ideally when you are mentally fresh—to read a certain amount every day. And it matters on so many fronts. As Chu writes, “Books gave me role models and heroes and meaning in a world where I had none.” Or as I wrote in “A Mind for God”:
From reading alone could I gain a sense of the currents shaping the world; from reading alone could I understand the prevailing worldviews from which Christianity was being assailed; from reading alone could I place myself in the vanguard of taking the Word of God to the word of the world. For it would be reading that would fill my mind with virtually limitless knowledge, instruction and insight. It would be reading that would exercise my mind and force it to break through barriers of stagnancy.
Little wonder that a monk in Normandy penned these words in 1170: “A monastery without a library [sine armario] is like a castle without an armory [sine armamentario]. Our library is our armory.” This was certainly the conviction of the apostle Paul who, even from his prison cell in Rome, implored Timothy to be sure to bring him his books (see 2 Timothy 4:13).
So, 200 books a year? You don’t have to give up social media and TV altogether. Just take one hour out of every four you’re spending on them,
… and read.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
