rMag

Practically Speaking Reading Right to Left Wrong

David Ketter

Bam! I shut the book. Yet another book has been finished. Ever since I’ve returned from my studies at Geneva College for the summer, I have practically inhaled books of all kinds: historical fiction, Christian thrillers, theological tomes, social critiques, psychological studies, and more besides. I could say that I was home-schooled and that taught me to be a voracious reader. I could say that I just like reading. Perhaps those would be true, in part. In truth, however, God has been teaching and challenging me in the area of reading – that I need to read widely in a way that serves my soul and enables me to serve others, and all this to His own glory.

Problem: No Difficulty

This is much easier to do in Hebrew, where I have to discern the nuance of every word in every use that is presented and translate accordingly. Anyone with extended language studies will be able to vouch for me on this matter. Yet, when I read books written in English, the tendency has always been for me to read them quickly, grasp the concepts generally, and move on.

This practice, however, was neither responsible nor discerning. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I have a responsibility to read everything with an eye to the question as to whether what I’m reading affirms the cross of Christ, or denies it. Reading is not and should not simply be about the ingestion of information, expanding our intellectual encyclopedia, or enhancing our knowledge of particular subjects. In fact, reading is designed to serve as our training ground for discernment – a subject that will be addressed shortly.

We often dismiss the significance of reading because of how easily accessible all these materials are to us. We have public libraries, internet libraries, audio books, literature available in all sorts of formats. We have a liberty and access to these resources that is unparalleled in the history of humankind. Libraries have been in existence for millennia. Writing and written communication for millennia before even that. Literacy is an early achievement in our race’s history and, if Hebrew tradition has anything to say about it, was a gift given to Adam in Eden by the Creator Himself. Yet, in our Western world, we so easily take it for granted.

Problem: No Filter in the Water

One of the major crises that is being faced across the world today is the lack of clean water in many locations across the globe, particularly in Africa. The filthy water that many men, women and children are surviving on lends itself to contact with many infectious diseases and viral infections. It is also a primary agent for the introduction of diarrhea, one of the top causes of death in the third world. For this reason, agencies and ministries like Blood:Water Mission and World Vision have sought to provide clean water supplies for those who are living in these conditions. Not only are they providing the water, however, but they are providing an education for these people to live more healthily and sanitarily as regards their water intake.

In a similar respect, we, as members of a Western society and a generally literate culture drink with little regard from the wells of published literature. Because we can do so with such ease and access, we are not very well-guarded against diseases of the mind: gullibility to deceptive ideas, commitment to falsity, and corruption of the mind that God, by His grace, is renewing. Even when we read with an eye to the reality of how muddy the waters are, we simply drink less than we previously did – which leaves us susceptible to the same downfalls as any other amount does. In other words, we’re drinking filthy water recklessly, asking for trouble – for diseases of the mind and heart that will, frankly, stifle the maturation of our faith and the effectiveness of our witness for Christ.

Our literature is rank with unbiblical and anti-Christ ideas and perspectives. Yet, it takes prominent places on our bookshelves, achieves new heights on our bestseller lists, and garners significant portions of those things which God has given us to steward. We fund “the next big thing” because of personal enjoyment and common ground with others in our society. While the Harry Potter war raged, the book’s popularity continued to soar and many Christians – if only for that reason – pursued the series to support it, while still others – for that same reason – pursued the series to derail it. In the process, thousands of people, both believers and non-believers, encountered a world of the supernatural that only whet their appetite for the other world. An appetite not guided by discernment or any reference or foundation in the Truth.

Problem: Forgetting the Reading Glasses

Trying to look for a problem without any point of reference is, to put it lightly, foolish. Yet, this is what we are guilty of. In our own self-confidence, we ignore the necessity of God’s Truth to any discernment. If we are relying on our own wisdom, our own logic, and our own sense of right and wrong, our practice of discernment – assuming it does exist – is fundamentally flawed and given over to systematic, methodical error. All too truly does Jeremiah inform us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV).

In essence, we read and read and read – as though blind. The only end effect that can come from this is that we will be leading others into our blindness, whether by example or by our teaching. We read things with “covers” over our eyes. There are many covers: the “conservative” cover, the “liberal” cover, the “American” cover, the “suburban” cover, the “patriotic” cover, “military,” “economic,” “pacifist,” “environmental,” and so on. All of these labels or “perspectives,” in essence, are not lenses, but blinders and we simply have chosen which color they are. Thus, we fall into error and lead others into it with us. And if we persist, only the vicious, undiscerning, fruitless cycle will continue.

Solution: Not What You Think…

One might think that the solution to all these problems might be a handy perspective shift that takes your old view of reading and gives you a new view of reading. If not that, maybe a step-my-step method to improve your discernment as you read. Or, even better than that, some sort of self-help advice to get you started on your road to reading rightly. All of those “solutions” are, essentially, fruitless. They might be a temporary fix, a metaphorical “band-aid” for the problems, but they don’t solve it. The only thing that will cure our reading sickness is focusing, not on our reading, but on our Redeemer.

It is the preeminence of Christ and the truth of His Gospel that will inevitably allow us to read with discernment, with an ear attuned to the Holy Spirit’s leading, and an eye to recognize those statements and authors that are set up against Christ. I cannot admonish and encourage you enough to go to the Scriptures and just drown yourself in the descriptions of what the Savior has done for us. I can’t impress any more deeply upon your minds just how vital it is to remember and recall and recite the depth of the Master’s love for His people and the Father’s decree of grace for us that we should be called the children of God! Devote yourself to reading the Passion narratives in the Gospels. Read Paul’s (glorious) recountings of the Person and work of Christ (Philippians 2, Colossians 1, etc) and revel in the glory of the Gospel. It is this, and this only, that will satisfy your soul and ready your heart to engage and discern what is truly right and good in the world of literature. And to that end, I commend you and pray that the Lord may richly bless you and speak with you and lead you.