Electricity in Preschool

I read really fast. I was always a fast reader – in preschool I prided myself in the fact that I could read the word “electricity”. Is that normal for a preschooler? Perhaps it is simply average…maybe I was a just a mediocre kid; I’ll never know.

I read lots of books, on all sorts of different and interesting topics. Normally, I am reading at least 3 books at a time: one for pleasure (good old John Grisham or ever entertaining Jane Austin), one for learning (author of the moment – Howard Hendricks), and one for spiritual growth (still plugging away at Celebration of Discipline). I like it this way – I can read depending on my mood.

I’ve read a lot of books in the past 2 years – I can’t even remember which ones. What did I learn from all this reading, you might ask? Absolutely nothing. Which brings me to my point.

I have decided to try something different from now on. Obviously my reading strategy wasn’t working for me – I need a new technique. Ol’ Hendricks has a great idea – spend more time reflecting. If you have an hour allotted for reading, for example, spend 30 minutes reading and 30 minutes reflecting. That’s my problem. I don’t reflect. I cruise through a book, thinking “oh, this is interesting”, but I never think about the words beyond the pages of the book. So the first thing that I chose to reflect on was about how to reflect on your reading...hmm.

I’ve learned a lot since I’ve started using this technique. It really works - I should start my own infomercial! In honor of this new method I have adopted, here’s a few things I learned, off-hand. (The only reason I can remember them off-hand is that I though and reflected on them – amazing!)

“The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent or gifted people, but for deep people”. (Richard J. Foster) Depth of experience, depth of wisdom, conversation, thinking, prayer - whatever. I’m tired of talking about American Idol and the weather. It’s high time we moved out of the comfort of superficiality and into the vulnerability and riskiness of depth. It’s worth it.

Mining 1 ounce of gold (about the amount used in an average wedding ring) displaces about 250 tons of rock and ore. But it’s not just about the environment; think you’re doing your good deed for the world by not buying ‘blood diamonds’? One third of all the world’s gold is illegally mined, and some is used to fund violence. Dirty gold. (From National Geographic)

“Jesus looked on him and loved him” – Mark 10:21
The Bible is amazing because it is packed with so many layers of depth and insight. Whether you skim the book of Mark as a whole or study the dots and the commas, it reveals something new and rich and wonderful about the character of God. When we look at people, do we love them with real, genuine love from the heart? Do we love the FedEx man, the parking meter guy, and the strangers we stroll by? Jesus did. How wonderful – and challenging – are these seven words.


“Instead of asking God why there is so much poverty and suffering in the world, we should be asking ourselves why we allow it to happen; we are Christ’s body, hands, and feet”. (Shane Claiborne) If that’s not convicting, I don’t know what else is. Enough said.