I have always been intimidated by readers. Let me clarify, not just by readers, but by those that read at length. In part, my insecurity was born out of my pride that the only book that I ever finished in high school was “Where the Red Fern Grows.” I was well read in Cliff’s Notes, but the texture of well-crafted words was foreign to me. That sad fact served me well in stirring up a laugh or two in community college, but when the wind of the real word blew through my empty head I knew I was seriously lacking. I was keenly aware of my predicament when I began to follow Jesus in college. Not only was I struggling to simply read my bible, but I hadn’t even heard of the “greats” of the Christian faith—those like Augustine, Luther or Lewis. I was a Christian anemic who was only surviving from Sunday to Sunday by the crumbs that fell from the pulpit of my local church. I was not thriving, but perhaps, slowly dying.

Through several sovereign relationships that God gave me, books were introduced as a treasure. If that great parable was re-told by my friends it would say, “”Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found…he opened the box and it was books!” Melodramatic? Perhaps. But treasure is exactly what I have found each day as I open the mind of one shaped by the grace of God.

3 ideas to ponder before you go turn on the T.V.:

1. You can read 15 books a year.

I know many people will say, “I’m just not a reader. To each is own.” I would say to those men or women, “You are a reader. You just read crap.” Our minds are filled up with magazines and newspapers articles and billboards and internet musings that have no life-giving value. Perhaps we are more well-informed (which is overly valued to be sure), but we are not more well-equipped for the race of life.

According to John Piper, everyone can read 15 books a year. Everyone. In other words, if you invest 20 minutes a day (some of you spend at least that much time in the bathroom) in reading a book then you will read 15 books a year. Curious? Let me break it down: If you are a slow reader and can read 250 words a minute, in 20 minutes you will read 5000 words. Each page of a book typically has 400 words. So at the end of 20 minutes you will read 12 ½ pages a day. If you do this six days a week for a solid year you will have read 3900 pages. Assuming an average book is 250 pages, you have read 15 books.

A quick warning: Reading is nothing to brag about. Listen to Charles Spurgeon on this subject, “A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than 20 books that he has merely skimmed, lapping at them.”

2. Reading will help your prayer life.

This may sound counter-intuitive. How can reading help you pray better? To answer this question, let me make a confession, “I suck at praying.” Now I can pray, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have any problem forming words that edify God, stir up faith in others and agree with the plans of God found in His Word. Prayer is easy. But consistent, persistent, standing on the wall, crying out every day kind of prayer…that is really hard, and I’m terrible at it.

What I’ve found is that if I can have a time every morning set aside to pray, that works best for me. The problem is that my body and spirit aren’t always on the same page at 7 in the morning. Listen to Martin Lloyd-Jones, “I have often found it difficult to start praying in the morning…I have found nothing more important than to learn how to get oneself into that frame and condition in which one can pray…to read something which can be characterized in general as devotional is of great value. By devotional I do not mean something sentimental, I mean something with a true element of worship in it…Start with something that will warm your spirit…you have to learn how to kindle a flame in your spirit. You have to learn how to use a spiritual choke.”

3. Don’t just read the easy stuff.

Let me clarify this statement. I am certainly not making a confession the only books with value are ones that must be read in iambic pentameter, or with a thesaurus as a companion reference. Not even close. I am not a very smart reader, so I am careful not to put myself in a corner that I can’t get out of. What I mean simply is this: As you grow in your understanding of certain subjects move to others that are foreign to you.

In other words, when I first became a Christian the first Christian author I read was Max Lucado. Max unpacked the grace of God for me in the most profound way. I cried and laughed at his anecdotes and I was challenged at some of his presuppositions. And after the last page was turned I was sad that I was at the end. However, when I flip through those books now I realize they helped me grow out of infancy. If I had started with “The City of God” by Augustine, I would have been swallowed up. So I had to begin with Lucado, but then I had to move on to something that would stretch me to another place of faith.

C.S. Lewis puts it another way. Read one new, one old. “But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old…It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.”

I will end this post with a quote that remains above my desk as a reminder to me daily, “Turn off the T.V. and go read some poetry.” Thomas Kuhn