Reading – Keeping It Pure

It’s sometimes difficult to find material on which to blog, other times the ideas flow at such a pace it’s difficult to put it in writing and keep it condensed to a readable amount.  The last 48 hours has been a good example of that, but I’ll keep this one brief.

You’ll notice from time to time I’ll note what I’m reading lately.  So for example I informed you of the Frank Viola books that I was working my way through in May.  There are about five books in a series in which he looks to outline the thinking behind the Organic Church model that he proposes.  I read four of the five books in the series.  The first gave a chronological reading of the events of the New Testament.  The second looked at how a lot of our modern church practices contravene New Testament principles due to their pagan background.  The third looked at imagining church again from those New Testament principles as acted out in the modern setting.  The fourth considered where the church finds itself in the big picture of God’s eternal purposes.  I was enthralled by this book as I was more than intrigued by the series as a whole.

It was purifying for me to go through this and get more immersed in the things of Jesus Christ and the importance of loving Him and seeing life through His eyes.  I felt really good.  By the time I came to the fifth and final book in the series where all that’s gone before informs the practical planting and developing of organic churches I knew I came across a problem and had to stop reading.  The problem, chiefly being that it made no sense reading the book unless I was in a position to practice it there and then.

This is unlike most other books I’ve read and taken on board, this book demands living out and the series of books I’d read previously had already stirred a number of things in me regarding church, faith, Jesus, love, relationships, etc. that had lain dormant for too long.  So I’m committed to a process, wherever it takes me, but it makes no sense reading that fifth book until I’m in a position to practise it, which I am actively working on … more than you know … at the moment … but all will be revealed … in the fullness of time.  (Any more reason to use ellipses? No … oh yes, just there.)

I say all that to say that my reading like my life goes through seasons, sometimes it’s discipleship, sometimes it’s ecclesiology, sometimes it’s Christian biography, sometimes it’s football, sometimes it’s musical or acting biography, sometimes it’s something random, sometimes it’s something political.  Seasons.  So having established a fairly sustained ‘Christian’ reading phase, I partially went off that momentarily to consider some other books back at the ol’ faithful library.

When it comes to selecting books I don’t really go by reviews or the sort, I’ll check out the blurb and consider the subject type and then make a decision based on that.  I’ll also consider the context in which I am reading the book and that can determine whether I read it or not.  Sometimes I’ll take out the maximum ten books and start them all but not finish them all and some of them won’t get started because times will change and my interest in the subject matter would have waned.  (Sorry Paul Weller, maybe I’ll get round to your bio at another point in time.  Likewise sorry Bono, came so close to finishing you off, but … oh look another set of ellipses!)

So I looked at some of the books on offer and saw one that was a collection of works from a TV reviewer.  I had seen this reviewer on television before and he appeared to be witty.  I like wit.  He came across a bit miserable, but the wit won me over.  I took the book out and as matters would have it, I was in the position to start reading it as I made my way back to MK yesterday.

As I got into the book I became quickly disenchanted.  In as much as the style retained the wit, it was also heavily cynical and sardonic.  Now I know cynicism very well, it’s very close to being critical, except in the world of cynicism the critical faculty is hailed as king and the demise of all else is considered a work for humanity.  I’ve grown not to like cynicism.  There’s little of the the light of the love of Jesus Christ in it.  I prefer Jesus.  I know cynicism can work for the intelligent and the witty.  I know it underpins some people’s approach to society, authority and culture.  I get that.  It doesn’t work for me.

So as I read a book that was based on the premise of cynicism I quickly lost interest.  Despite the subject material, despite the wit, despite the elaborate set up in each article, it quickly became apparent to me that the experience of reading that book might leave me all the better for wittier puns and insights in some of our blessed TV cultural artefacts (hey, I hate programmes like I’m A Celebrity … – is that another set of ellipses I see?), but I would not have been any better for it.  So in a move very rare for me, I stopped reading the book.  I won’t read it again.  It won’t do me any good.

I’m not expecting books to comply to my spiritual standards and criteria.  I often read books to get an impression of humanity that others can offer.  I am often edified by reading biographies of the most unscrupulous and tragic figures.  When it comes to a good read though, there’s got to be an element in which something pure can be taken from it and in cynicism, it’s almost like wallowing in impurity.

So that heavily influences my reading.  Yet even in stating that, it brings up an issue that I got when I started reading another book after giving that one up.  Let me explain … in an upcoming entry.  (I wonder if my English teacher would tell me off for the over use of ellipses … probably not, but I thought I’d slap another one right there just for the fun of it!)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd