When you were in school, you had to do a lot of things that you did not like. One of those was to do homework. You did not like having to do homework, but at all levels of education, homework is a requirement. You did homework, not because you liked it, but because the teacher required it. The teacher made homework mandatory, because he/she knew that it was necessary to master the material.
What can be said of homework, can also be said about reading. At all levels of education, reading must be done to learn the information being studied. Today a lot of learning can happen by looking at videos, but research proves that reading uses a part of the brain that videos do not. Reading is a must for enhanced brain stimulation. Joseph Addison has some wise words to say regrading this: “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Nobody would dispute the fact, that for physical health, you must have physical exercise. In like fashion, to have good mental health, the brain needs the stimulation that comes from reading.
Paul wanted to use his time wisely when he was in house arrest, awaiting trial and probable death. He did not sit around and groan and agonize about his fate. Look at his request to Timothy: “When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13). Most Bible scholars agree that Paul wanted copies of the Scriptures and, also, some contemporary works to read. Paul wanted to be a student, up to the very end of his earthly life.
Reading has slowly become a lost art in American culture. I understand the significance of videos, but reading exercises mental stimulation that those videos cannot do. Let’s recover that lost art of reading. Start today!
