Christian Monthly Standard

I figured it out the hard way.

This was originally going to be a reply to Richard’s post on reading but it took on a life of it’s own. I share the belief that people don’t read enough. I used to not read at all nor was I living a Godly life. My experience in a major Hurricane brought back memories of my Christian upbringing as well as a harsh realization of how powerful an “act of God” can be.  (I said “act of God” knowing without a doubt that God didn’t make the hurricane but but did protect me from it)

Following the storm, circumstances forced me to read due to lack of electricity to run TV. Not long afterwards times changed again and I was no longer forced to read from boredom but had developed a reading habit from the time without electricity. It was a small habit at first. At that point I could have easily stopped reading altogether. Instead I continued to read every now and then to relax. Then I had an unfortunate accident resulting in a severe concussion. This resulted in both memory loss and paralysis. Exercising the inured part of the body is standard practice for any rehabilitation therapy. This meant I had to read and write to regain the parts of my memory that were lost. Being in the habit of reading made that part a lot easier. I chose Biblical History among other things to focus on. I didn’t realize it at the time but because of what seemed like a bad thing, I have grown spiritually far beyond any loss of physical ability that has resulted from my injury. I realize that there is a good chance that my physical life may be shortened because of that injury but it put my spiritual life into  perspective and made me realize that God comes first. I have noticed that the more I read (and write like here in the CMS), the stronger relationship I feel with God. Seeing this from my perspective has made me realize that as a society, the less we read, the farther we will stray from Gods path. If one person reads this and doesn’t have to get severely injured to improve their study habits or to develop a closer relationship to God then everything I have gone through will be totally worth it.