Take and Read

Two resources have recently crossed my path that encourage learning through reading.

The first is a wonderful commencement address by popular historian David McCullough called The Love of Learning that was given to the graduates of Boston College. A transcript of McCullough's speech can be found here: www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/08/McCullough_BCCommencement08.pdf

In the commencement address, McCullough quotes the wisdom of Abigail Adams,

"Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought with ardor and attended with diligence."

He also includes the advice John Adams gave to their son John Quincy Adams, to always carry a book with him on his travels because,

"You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket."

The second resource that reminded me of the importance of learning and reading is this month's issue of the "Mars Hill Audio Journal" by Ken Myers. Their website is: http://www.marshillaudio.org/

At their site you can order issue 90, or listen to a free podcast featuring some of the interviews from this issue. In the Mars Hill Audio piece, Ken Myers makes the point that reading is important because as Christians, we have been given scripture in a written format. He notes that,

“The word spoken and written lives at the center of the Christian faith…We are after all created in the image of a speaking and writing God. One who utters all things into existence who reveals His law by writing with his finger on tablets of stone, who reveals Himself in dreams and visions but who also provides words to accompany and sometimes explain those images, who comes among us as the Living Word.”

Two good pieces encouraging us to read and learn.