HOPE TRIUMPHS

WHY IS READING IMPORTANT?

Image credit: CARLOS ESPINOZA on Pexels.

By REV TONY ZEKVELD

When is the last time you picked up a good historical novel or a biography and read it from cover to cover? I dare say most of us have not for a long time. 

Our day and age is one of streaming movies and social media generating quick reads. From time to time I’ll read a news article on Facebook and below the tantalizing caption it says ‘three-minute read’. It’s as if to say, “Please take a moment and read”.

Somehow, I doubt that “lack of time” is the reason. Perhaps it may be what we choose to do with our free time. I find that easily happens with me.

Since the pandemic began, my wife and I have been reading books together, usually about fifteen minutes each morning. We commented to each other the other day about how many books we have read in one year! 

We have read hard-copy books that cover a wide range of topics – books like Thank God for Bedtime by Geoff Robson, Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions About Life and Sexuality by Nancy R. Pearcey, Keeping Faith in Medicine by Theodore R. Fenske, to name a few. Currently we are reading Empires of Dirt by Douglas Wilson.

We subscribe to a few hard-copy magazines which we receive in the mail. One of our favorites is the Reformed Perspective which comes out quarterly. I look at my latest issue which includes articles such as, Parenting, Archer Fish: A Wonder of Creation, and Music from the Eyes.

The benefits are many. It takes you away from the computer screen. It provides new ideas to talk about, discuss and think through. One of the biggest reasons why reading is important is that it enables you to think critically about what you hear on the news or what you hear people saying on the streets or what your teacher (or professor) is teaching in the classroom.

Too often we believe everything we hear rather than thinking critically through the issues. “After all,” we say, “they are the experts”. By reading, though, we learn to become experts. We learn to evaluate what we hear and think for ourselves. This is important.

For me, the Bible is my filter, the lens through which I look and evaluate everything I hear and read. “For in His light, we see light” (Psalm 36:9).

Take up a good book. Enjoy! 

Reverend Tony Zekveld can be reached at 416-740-0543 and tzekveld@primus.ca.