I have been working hard at increasing the depth and breadth (and speed!) of my reading. To be honest, I’ve often felt guilty for taking time in my day to read. I always thought, “How many of my church members get the luxury of sitting down with a book in the middle of their day to read?” I have come to realize how short-sighted and, frankly, absurd that notion is.
My whole job is to make sure that I’m learning the answers to a thousand different questions. I have to work to understand deep, theological concepts so that I can adequately and simply communicate them to people who are struggling, hurting or confused over something that has happened in life. For me to understand the answers, I have to continually be digging and studying which, of course, means reading.
In some way or another, you have to continue developing, too. Whether it’s in your job, your family, or your soul, you are charged to keep growing. We are constantly learning. The question is whether we’re learning the hard way or doing the hard work to learn the easy way, which rarely happens without reading.
I recently came across one of the absolute best articles I’ve ever read on the subject of “professional reading” which could also apply to the area of general “developmental reading.” It’s about the reading habits of General James Mattis who was recently tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next Secretary of Defense. In the Business Insider article, General Mattis talks of the primary reason that carving out time for extensive reading time is so important:
The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience (or by your men’s experience), i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.
Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed (successfully or unsuccessfully) before. It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.
What about you? Do you make reading a priority? I encourage you to expand your horizons, develop a wide-range of interests (history, biography, theology, etc.), and begin carving out time whenever you can to invest in personal growth through reading. I highly recommend you read the entire article here and check out the following extra posts for some tips and guidelines.
Additional articles on the subject:
Albert Mohler on “The Reading of Books”
My article on 7 Tips for Reading Better, Faster and Smarter
