Musing 24

As I prep to see my child start reading . . . . probably sooner than I like to think, there are so many good books that I want my child to be exposed to facilitate growth.

There were many good books that pushed me to grow both as a person and in my faith. Some of those influences come from a strange place, given how niche some of them are in this day.

But I am so thankful to God for growing up in the library. Whether it be reading Animorphs, Shannara or Harry Potter on the fiction side, or Niebuhr, Sproul, or Ryle on the theology side (yes, I’m well aware 1 of those names is not like the other), being challenged through books was pretty much how the first 2 years of my Christian walk was defined.

When I was saved, I was in a PCUSA church, and from the moment I became saved, I felt the need to go elsewhere because something was missing. Now, I know what was missing was the Shepherd’s voice. But somehow, the church library was phenomenal. While sure there were works by outright heretics on proud display, right next to them were solid theologians historical and modern. My first exposure to Calvin and Sproul came from that library, and that ended up shaping me more profoundly than I’d realize early on.

In the last few years, I’ve found myself revisiting many works I hadn’t read in a decade, and more than once found myself going “oh, that’s where I got that from”. One of the clearest examples was when I started re-reading Kuyper’s Stone lectures, and I realize that I am so in debt to Kuyper for much of how I’ve applied theology to my wide life, sometimes with me quoting him to others without having realize it.

It’s moments like that where I feel the need to be aware of church history. We have so many witnesses to the Christian life in history that can bring solace. Or in my case, be a means by which the Spirit works to bring conviction of sin, particularly on blind spots I may have held onto. As an example, our forebears were much more negative about the use of fiction in our free time, whereas today, we are much more muted in our concern about it (if we don’t outright dismiss such concerns). And while I may not fully agree with their assessment, it does strike at the heart because it becomes easy to see where sin can use fiction to mute the severity of certain sins, or deaden my emotions to real situations through distraction.

All in all, read good books, especially old ones. They’ve stood the test of time.

To name 5 books outside of Scripture that have impacted me particularly, I’d call out :

• Holiness, by J.C. Ryle
• Practical Religion by J. C. Ryle
• Charity and its Fruits, by Jonathan Edwards
• We become what we Worship, by G.K. Beale
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs