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Just a short note to my Jesus-following brothers. Read. Read. Read. and then.. write. Our generation is deeply behind in this area, and it shows. Shut off the tv and games and read. Read good stuff by men who are dead- it keeps us from falling for contemporary pop distortions. Reading humbles you, and then writing REALLY humbles you. If you think you know what you think, try writing it out clearly. If you think it’s really tight, have someone critique it who’s further along than you and get their honest input. This is why we go to class- to learn, and then prove we’ve learned by being able to clearly communicate it back. I’ve heard it said that we don’t know something well if we can’t explain it to a child. I believe that’s largely true.
Caution- at some point in the process you are likely to discover that the giddy sensation of learning information to feel smarter than someone else is different than the beautiful experience of changing and growing as a person. One brings arrogance. The other brings humility as we realize how much we don’t fully understand.
But we don’t have to wait for class. I write for my own thinking process constantly. I read so I don’t become lazy, assuming I’m right just because I’m the one thinking something. Every man who influenced me deeply for the long term was one who read. They read the Bible, and they read others who studied the Bible. They read history and saw how it was all fitting together. They were mature. They didn’t just look at an issue, they could see through the issue. Adolescence should not be a stopping off point for us as men, but a short process where we become men who know who were are and why we do what we do.
This is why we go to class- to learn, and then prove we’ve learned by being able to clearly communicate it back. I’ve heard it said that we don’t know something well if we can’t explain it to a child. I believe that’s largely true. But we don’t have to wait for class. I write for my own thinking process constantly. I read so my brain doesn’t get lazy, wrongly assuming I’m right just because I’m the one thinking it. Every man who has influenced me deeply for the long term was one who read. They read the Bible, and they read others who studied the Bible. They read history and saw how it was all fitting together.
If you’d like a place to start- try the book of John, then CS Lewis. Then Eric Mataxis’s book on Bonhoeffer, then a book or two on history, then AW Tozer and some solid books on theology. Then.. back to the Bible, the book of Romans and… Repeat until cheap amusements look like counterfeit substitutes for joy. This will grow your appetites for things that cause you become a giver instead of a consumer. Caution- at some point in the process you are likely to discover that the giddy sensation of learning information to feel smarter than someone else is different than the beautiful experience of changing and growing as a person. One brings arrogance. The other brings humility and contentment as we realize how much we don’t fully understand.
