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November 9, 2006
Participitory Reading
Filed under: God, Faith & Spirituality
For the past few weeks, I've been reading Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson. In one of the chapters, Peterson tells of his appetite for running. From the "smooth rhythms of long-distance running" to "the quietness, the solitude, the heightened senses," it is clear that running is very personal and very much a participatory experience for Peterson. In his prime, he subscribed to three running magazines and regularly checked out books from the library on running and runners.
Until the day when Peterson pulled a muscle, and couldn't run for a couple months. He noticed that when he was not running, he was no longer engaged in his regular rhythm of ingesting running books, magazines, and conversation.
"I was reading about running not primarily to find out something, not to learn something, but for companionship and validation and confirmation of the experience of running. Yes, I did learn a few things along the way, but mostly it was to extend and deepen and populate the world of running that I loved so much. But if I wasn't running, there was nothing to deepen."
The parallels to my own life are significant. My how easy it is to replace the word "running" with "marketing," "business," "cause," even "church." My consumption of related fodder only feeds my appetite for more. The affirmation is helpful as is the motivation to do more, be more, and experience more.
The parallel for Peterson is that Scripture must be ingested the same way. If we're not living it, we have no motivation to read it, discuss it, and experience it.
I shudder to think what would happen if I used the same obedience and discipline applied to my other love interests, and actually did the same with Scripture.
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