I love books. If I’m not blogging you can usually find me with my nose in a book. There seems to be lots of talk in the blogosphere about books right now, so I thought I may as well join the crowd!
Before I begin, I want to say that books are not bad. They teach us many important lessons. However, we can become consumed with them…and that’s not a good thing. Keep this in mind throughout the post!
Lately, I’ve been challenged by what I read. For the longest time, I have enjoyed reading novels. I would spend hours pouring over these books and sometimes I would forgo schoolwork. A few years ago, I made a statement to my mom that makes me shudder today,
“Mom I enjoy reading books more than the Bible.”
There were two problems as this point: The Bible wasn’t the most important book to me and I idolized books. After finding this out, my mom put me on a “book-fast”. For about 2 months I was only allowed to read the Bible and a few select books. That period started out as one of the most desolate times. I loved novels and kept itching to get one in my hands. My love for books was very strong but then God began to break me.
Gradually, I learned to go right to the Bible and not crave other books. In essence, what I really learned was that the Bible should be the first on my list of books. Never second or third - always first. After about two months of a book-fast, I was allowed to start reading other literature again. But this time things were different.
I began to read less novels and I dug for new books. Books that would help me become a better Christian and literature that actually taught me something with a purpose.
I also began reading books with a different intent. While I occasionally read novels, I was careful not to become too consumed by them. And, I began to widen my spectrum of reading. Up to this point, I rarely read books by C.S. Lewis or Josh McDowell. I had dubbed them as “not very interesting” and “very boring”. I considered them to be “grown up” books. Why should I read them? Surely I couldn’t get anything out of them. But I was wrong. Now was time for me to “put away” my novels and start digging for new deeper treasures.
It is tempting to think that becuase a book is written by Christians or that it has lots of Biblical insight means that you can’t be consumed with these kinds of books - but we can. I was even careful not to allow good books to become first on my list.
1 Corinthians 13:11 says:
When I was a child, talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Are novels “childish” things? No, not really. But some books are like dessert. They are meant to be consumed in small quanities. What person would eat dessert before the main course? These kinds of books can be good at the right time and place. But we can’t just skip the main course and go right to them. We eat a substantial nutritious meal first. Likewise, we can’t just eat “dessert books” all the time. We have to read “substantial books” too - and that’s what I started to look for in books. While novels can be good, there is a certain time and place for them.
Take J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’s best-selling series Left Behind as an example. Both of these series are written by Christian authors. I also know that Left Behind is written about a widely debated topic: the end times. (Note, I have never read Lord of the Rings so I can’t say what it’s all about.) Tolkien, LaHaye and Jenkin’s books are an excellent supplement to a steady diet of truth - God’s Word. I Peter 1:24-25 says:
All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.”
The Bible is the most important book. But it is often tempting for me to cast it aside for “dessert”. I must have the discipline and self control to set aside this distraction. We should never set that aside for other books. As simple as this may sound, for someone who really likes books it’s hard!
If Jesus were to return today and He found you reading, would you be embarrased if He saw the cover or read the content?
