Currently, I'm reading a book about church planting from Crossway. The book is written by Darrin Patrick who is a church planter and is vice president of Acts29 Church Planting Network and is a close associate of Mark Driscoll. Perhaps these are names that you recognize, maybe they are not. What I want to write about has little to do with what the book says, or about the men who write them. The fact that my eyes scan across ink on paper, bound with glue and called a book, is amazing.
Over the years my mom has kept pretty much all of my report cards. I have them from 1st grade through high school. I think most are accounted for and for the ones that are unaccounted for, there's probably a good reason they are "lost." By and large they exist and they tell a story.
Through most of my elementary school years I was excited to earn good grades. My friends and I would often brag and boast about our grades and what we got on various assignments and homework. Things changed at some point, however. We went from bragging about our good grades, accumulating awards and ribbons, and boasting of our intelligence to a strange place where the more stupid you were the cooler you were. I hear from many people that this strange phenomenon is still alive and well in many schools.
Right around 5th grade, my report cards tell a story of something changing within my little mind and heart. It was no longer acceptable to get good grades. Rather, to get good grades meant that you were a nerd, spoiled, and uncool. I fell into this trap and began to intentionally sabotage my homework and tests so I could win the approval of my peers. This trend picked up in the Junior High years when I began to realize that my social standing with classmates and peers was directly dependent upon the output of grades in the classroom. Since I chose a particular group of friends to associate with, it was my obligation to earn the kind of grades that allowed me to be a part of the group. So, I succeeded at being mediocre.
Freshman year of high school was the worse of all. I was skipping class so frequently that I was ineligible to play football, and earned a spot on the Saturday school roster for truancy. As a matter of fact, I had 4 Saturday school session that first year in high school. I had a 1.83 GPA halfway through the first semester of high school. I was on my way to a bright future!
Then something happened. My parents told me I had to get a 3.0 GPA in order to drive and that if I did that consistently they would buy me a car. So, from Sophomore year until I graduated, I earned a 3.0 or better each semester. As it turns out, high school is really easy. I earned a 3.0 or better without ever reading a single book. I skimmed a few pages, made stuff up, convinced people to do some of the work for me, and flat out cheated. For me, the end justified the means.
When I became a Christian in 1999, everything changed. I began to love learning. I read my first book at the age of 19 and haven't looked back since. I love the challenge of reading words I've never heard of. I enjoy the challenge of following someone's argument for 200 pages. I embrace the difficulty of taking new information and analyzing it in the context of my own life and experiences. Why did everything change like that? Because I had a good reason to learn once I became a Christian.
My only reason and motivation to learn anything was to have the opportunity to drive. The social pressures I experienced were motivating me to be more stupid, not smarter. So, in order to satisfy all parties, I intentionally did mediocre work in the presence of my peers to save face, and did just enough to earn a 3.0 to satisfy my parents. However, when I became a Christian two things stuck out to me: 1) I am created in the Image of God and I have been given a mind in which I am to love God with, and 2) there is a lot of truth made available through books; and since all truth is God's truth, what I learn about life and reality is an opportunity to learn more about the nature and character of God.
I read, on average, about 20+ books each year. Some of those I have on a steady rotation because their value in my life is immeasurable. As I read these books what happens to me is remarkable. I get the sense that I am using my mind to think and learn and it is a way in which I love God. He has made us rational beings and that sets us apart from the beasts. Also, I have new perceptions and am given new perspectives on things I've not experienced or thought about. In short, I'm learning more about the world God created and died to redeem.
When people ask me why I read so much I can confidently say that the reason is because of God's redemption. I was a person that was wasting my God-given intelligence on social status and reputation. But God has redeemed me. I once used my intelligence to find new ways to cheat the system and get away with it; now, I use my intelligence to express my love for God's work in my life. What was once wasting away has now been redeemed; what was once lost has now been found; what was once used for evil is now used for good. Some people often quote to me 1 Corinthians 8:1, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." For me, reading books does not kill love, it kindles it.
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