Thank you for joining us!
Before we begin our essay, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from Monday’s discussion question:
wrote:When tragedy, distant or nearby, particularly strikes me, I’m often drawn to create. (I think you might resonate with this.) The smokey skies, pink light in my window, grey skies above gray buildings, drag my camera off its shelf and make me late for work. My challenge from there is what to do with what has been worked out in the glass of my lens, and I love the idea of it further drawing me to prayer.
So beautifully said, Sara! Sara writes a newsletter called Sara’s Lenses where she explores ecotheology through the lens of art and photography!
Learning To Read
This may come as a surprise to some, but reading has always been a difficulty for me. Not the act of reading words on a page, but the act of sitting down and focusing on a book, especially finishing one.
When I was a child I learned to read fairly quickly, and all through school I loved writing and words, but I’ve never been what you might call a “bookworm”. I’m a very picky reader, needing to be hooked fairly early on. If I’m not hooked within the first few pages, it’s rare for me to finish a book.
I’m also a repeat reader. When I find a book I like, I’ll read it every year as a tradition. I find it soothing to the brain. It’s tough for me to branch out and read new things. Recommendations from others are always a gamble.
Still, I’ve tried to maintain at least some semblence of a reading routine. Using Goodreads to track my reading does help; not so much as a matter of pressure, but because my brain likes to see the updated page count go up as I read. But lately, even Goodreads wasn’t helping me to maintain a daily habit of reading a book. It has been months since I really let myself get captivated.
This week, I decided to change that. I asked folks on my Instagram whether any of them had any tips and tricks for maintaining a reading habit, and I was amazed and grateful that I got TONS of fantastic responses!
I won’t share them all here, obviously, but I’ve boiled them down to a couple of major themes:
Location: Having a book nearby in the places where you’ll be pausing at any point in the day—your bed, your favorite spot in the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom—is a great prompt to pick up a book when you have a minute. In the car or in a purse/bag are also great options for on-the-go! Some chose audiobooks over physical books as a way to listen to something fun or edifying while doing other tasks, like chores or commuting.
Timing: Everyone seems to have their own preference for timing when reading, but a LOT of people who responded to my question said that they either read in the morning, when the words can land fresh on their minds, or at night when they’re winding down for sleep. (Most of these folks recommended having a book—or a pile of books—by the bed, incidentally.)
Attention: Many respondents said that they would either leave their phone in another room or at the opposite end of the room when they were reading. Or, they might even switch their phone to Airplane Mode to avoid distractions.
Follow the Joy: Instead of pressuring yourself to read what you feel you should read, read what sounds fun to read. Don’t push, and don’t make it harder than it has to be. Follow the fun, the joy. Choose a book you can’t wait to dig in to!
Believe me, this is not a moralizing essay about the evils of technology and the virtues of reading. Far from it; I’m typing this on a computer as we speak, it would be more than a little hypocritical. ;)
Instead, this is a call to ask myself what messages I am preparing to hear, every day. The problem with technology is the way I often use it, choosing to turn off my brain, scroll through my phone, and allow the negativity and despair of the world to fall upon me like water from a firehose. When I’m in this mode, there’s no filter between me and the mess, and I’m not really listening.
But when I read, especially when I choose what I read carefully, my mind is forced to slow down and, I believe, hear God’s voice in the pages. And I’m not just talking about Christian books, here. Fiction, nonfiction, written by a whole diversity of people whose lives and viewpoints are different from mine…in all of these, I can find Him if I pay attention.
If God can speak through the wildfire smoke and invite me to draw nearer to Him in prayer, He can certainly whisper through the pages of any book I read, showing me Himself in unexpected ways.
In the beginning was the Word, after all.
Benediction
May the God Who Speaks reveal Himself—in all His glory—in the most unexpected places and pages.
May every Word we read reflect His Story.
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"Fiction, nonfiction, written by a whole diversity of people whose lives and viewpoints are different from mine…in all of these, I can find Him if I pay attention."
Overall I feel this essay pointedly. I beat myself up for not finishing books as if I have some obligation to the writer. But this is not the case and is just me putting unnecessary pressure on myself. I tend to allow this pressure to push me away from books for a while. Thanks for the reminder that it's okay to not finish a book.
Also, looking for "the Word" within all books is a beautiful and powerful notion. Thanks for sharing.
"Listening" is a word that is more appealing to me than "mindfulness". It evokes imagery of pausing in a forest and trying to separate all the sounds I hear from each other and think about what each creature is. Or it's trying to listen past the words someone is saying to me and get to the meaning they are trying to convey. Reading as listening is such a great idea. It is a way to practice "listening" so that we can listen in every sense of the word to what we are experiencing every day.