Wretched Man That I Am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Jan

31

Religion as a Hobby

Filed Under puritan reading challenge, reading

Tim Challies had a great post a while back about Environmentalism -A New Religion.

Over the last few weeks I’ve come to the conclusion that I may be guilty of Theology as a Hobby

I’ve been plowing through book after book by great authors — Piper, Sproul, Ferguson, Owen. I have even plunged into the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge and having completed the Bruised Reed last night, I’m ahead of schedule by a couple days.

Which…

brings me back to where I started. I am afraid I’m plowing through books just to finish them, wipe them off and place them lovingly back on my shelf and possibly even mention to a buddy or two that I just finished _____ over the weekend. Not to beat myself up too bad, I have to admit that I am a pretty good reader. I retain a lot (much… some) of what I read, and I take tons of notes in my books and really beat them up quite well during a reading. Lately, though, I haven’t been reading those notes after the book is finished.

Recently, I was introduced to Library Thing and I’m afraid this may just exacerbate the problem. Now I just want more books and I want to be really aware of everything I have.

Time to slow down. I need to stop spending so much time worrying about the latest greatest new release and go back and re-read the classics sitting on my shelf. I need to pray before I read them. Pray and meditate on what I am reading while I’m reading. Pray after I read them. Basically I just need to make sure I’m spending time with God while I’m spending time with my books.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I will keep reading and I am starting the next book in the PRC tonight, but as J.I. Packer told his students, “theology is for doxology and devotion.”

Not bad to keep in mind.

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