How Did the 10 Commandments Read Original
I often speak to students nigh the moral nature of our intellectual lives—there are correct and wrong ways to learn and at that place are limits to what God wants us to know. Listen to the psalmist who did not business himself with things, "also neat and wonderful" for him (Psalm 131:1). Now contrast that to Task who spoke in haste of things "as well wonderful" for him (Job 42:3), only to lay his hand on his mouth. Knowing is a venture fraught with ethical and spiritual risks.
Many students accept since approached me with questions nigh how to read well. After all, if there is a limit to what nosotros tin and should know, in that location must be corresponding limits to how and what any of us should read. That has led me to create this listing of personal reading rules that I attempt to live past. Like the X Commandments in the Law of Moses, I've made my list with two "tables"—the "whats" and the "hows" of reading.[ane]
What to read:
- Read niggling. This was once hyperbole but in the day of the Internet it should probably be taken literally. We only have so much time and capacity for learning and understanding new ideas. So a crucial determination in all reading is to say 'no' to a lot of 'interesting' things in favor of 'necessary' things. If you develop good habits here, y'all're way alee of most people. Don't fret for one infinitesimal the ambitious listing of books you intended to read last yr. Instead, ask yourself: Did I read ane or ii skillful things?
- Be humble and stay focused. Related to the rule in a higher place, I try not to worry if I've never heard of a book or author. Making this a habit has helped me avert the pressure to rush out and buy a book, or click on a link to an article I probably won't end. Stick to your calling and close those open reading tabs.
- Read with specific goals. My reading includes specific things for depth, for latitude, and for leisure and refreshment. I spend most of my time on the commencement, then the second, then the third.
- Heed to wise counselors. I become a lot of recommendations, and and so I accept to employ a refined filter to choose what to read. I try to focus my reading on established writers and simply those books recommended to me by a very few trusted friends. I besides read more than onetime stuff than new stuff. I've most abandoned Christian bestsellers, hot new books, blogs, the popular news media, anything that took less than a month to write, and well-nigh of what comes through connections on social media (of which I read very little).
How to read:
- Read critically and carefully. When I'm reading for breadth and depth, I choose the time of day carefully and limit distractions as far every bit possible. No music, phones, or computers nearby. Then I pray and read with pencil and colored pasty flags nearby. When I restart these books I often go back over the flagged pages to remind myself of things I want to have away from the reading over the long haul. Most people tin merely focus like this for about 30 minutes at a fourth dimension, and maybe 2-3 hours on a good day!
- Read in conversation with the writer. This is a human thing later on all. I endeavor to read as if I'm in a conversation with the writer: Is this true? Show me. What do you mean? Can you requite me an example? Well said. And, Do I empathise y'all correctly here? Requite the author the benefit of the dubiousness. The best reading happens when you're on a search for something with the sense of someone looking over your shoulder. This keeps your mind on the page and out of the many distractions in life. If I find myself drifting also much, I put down the text until the energy returns. You cannot read well when you are tired!
- Remember the right things. I use journals and a couple of software tools to record important thoughts in a retrievable place. The periodical is for my own wrestling with an idea before information technology goes into writing or education, and information technology's probably more than of import than saving the information electronically. Be very selective in what y'all cull to remember; nosotros're hands decumbent to have eyes bigger than our stomachs.
- "Re"read. I reread many books and articles. I saw recently that nosotros remember less than ten% of what we read over a lifetime. I remembered that because I reread the study. To aid my retentiveness I use flags and notes to maximize what I take away, but I likewise get back to of import pieces, sometimes often. I'm rereading one author now for at least the fourth time in twenty years and finding all new insights I'd simply missed in earlier readings. That's truthful for anyone I reread. In the first reading of a difficult volume, I look for a few things and questions to follow up on in the future.
- Pace yourself. Endeavor non to read over your head or take it all in now. Learning goes in developmental stages and you accept to build up patiently. This is an area of recent personal growth. I worry less about what I know today than where I want to be in 20-25 years. "Genius is long patience," as the Dominican scholar Antonin Sertillanges once wrote. Or equally Eugene Peterson often quotes Nietzsche, "The important thing is a long obedience in the same management." Read with patience and endurance rather than fear and urgency.
- Read in community. Scripture everywhere portrays united states of america as socially connected. Nosotros depend on one another as a body and, and so far as possible, nosotros ought to learn together. Find like-minded people and describe on their wisdom. Read alone and slowly first, of course, simply then always discuss.
The "ii greatest commandments" that Jesus quotes in the gospels are not among the Ten Commandments written on stone (though they were among the commandments given to Moses). It seems plumbing fixtures to add a summary commandment that covers these 10. I depict this command from the long tradition of Christian medieval scholars:
Read nether the bond of love. That is, read and report with dearest for God, love of neighbor, and dear of wisdom.
[i] My thanks to Zachary Lee for sparking the idea of "Ten Commandments for reading."
Source: https://chestertonhouse.org/blog/ten-commandments-reading/
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