You See Dry Bones

My Brain Exploded

But, I STILL want Logos software…Version four just came out

We have a study.  Granted, it is still rather disorganized, but it is a study none-the-less. I only have room for one more bookshelf. This is a shame because I want more books. Looking around my study, you will see books of every type. I have fiction, non-fiction, reference, and study guides. Of course, I have a few Bibles as well.

I have a copy of Grudem’s Systematic Theology, several introductions to the New and Old Testaments, surveys, and a good handful of Bible commentaries. I have books on Old Testament and New Testament people, culture, history, all from some of the greatest theologians on the planet. Then there is the Internet. I love my online access to the ESV Study Bible.

Is this too much?

There have always been nerds and will always be nerds. But is there too much information at our fingertips?  Books used to be highly valued possessions because they were very expensive and only few could read. Now, with a little searching, we can get a book for about the cost of shipping. Some books clearance out for under a buck. Google books has brought us books in the public domain for free. John Piper gives away a huge bulk of his work online, as does Mark Driscoll (only to a lesser extent). We have blogs (like this one) and even Twitter feeds to help us gain more knowledge.

But at what cost?

I think many of us (and I am guilty too) ingest more than we can digest. Some of us may have the ability to read countless books and comprehend and apply every single piece of information inside them. For the most part, most of us do not. It is a popular thing to be a geek these days among the Reformed circles. A common question is “what books are you reading?” We judge a mans character by what authors line his bookshelves. Some of us judge a man by pure quantity of the books he has read.

What about actual study?

What if we actually took time to study what we read. I will use Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (associate link) as an example. The book is huge (1291 pages of awesome). I could read through it in about two months if I was not reading any other books. What a notch on my belt that would be! When someone asks me, “what is the most theologically intense book you have read to date?” I could bust out the best answer ever. What would this profit me? My pride would balloon, sure. Would my life change? Would new concepts go from my head to my heart, or just log-jam in my neck until I choked?

Read for fun, and profit.

I recommend reading for the fun and joy of reading. If you have not in a while, pick up a fiction book (I recommend The Man Who Was Thursday: Centennial Edition by Chesterton) and just sit back and enjoy it. I saw my wife with a copy of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol a week or so ago. I might read it myself soon.

If you are reading some epic tome of theological greatness, take your time and actually study the concepts. Don’t just breeze through it. Pray about the concepts and how they can apply to your sanctification. Stop trying to add a notch to your belt. If you can, try and re-read a book you “flew” through in the past. If you are reading the Bible, really dig into it. Break out a couple translations and commentaries (click here for more on external resources). Pray before studying. Ask God to help this be beneficial to more than just your big head.

Most of all, do not forget what a privilege it is to be able to read. Many still cannot or do not have access to books like we do.

-Don-