The Books We Read and the People We Meet

Motivational speaker Charlie “Tremendous” Jones often commented, “Five years from now, you’ll be the same except for the books you read and the people you meet.”

Obviously, other factors can influence our lives, but there’s a lot of truth to Jones’s statement. Being an avid reader, I’ve been dramatically affected by many books I’ve read and the authors who wrote them. If you’ve seen many of my posts, you know the Bible has been the single most influential book in my life. But there have been many others as well.

Books can take us to new worlds
and transport us to different times.

I remember reading classic books like Treasure Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Hans Brinker and A Tale of Two Cities that whisked me to other lands and other times. As an adult I spent some time experiencing the horrifying worlds of Stephen King, and novels by John Grisham made life with lawyers and judges seem exciting. Uplifting works by the likes of Philip Yancey, Walter Wangerin, Oswald Chambers, C.S. Lewis, Charles Swindoll and others informed and challenged my understanding of God and true spirituality.

It’s sad that reading has become a second-rate pastime for many people, because every book I’ve read gave me something to think about and in one way or another, made me a bit richer person.

The people I’ve met have had an even more profound impact on my life. I’ve already written about teachers and college professors. But employers, work colleagues, friends and family members have had an impact on me no words could ever fully express.

People we encounter from day
to day enrich our lives.

As a journalist it’s been my privilege to interview numerous well-known people, many worth knowing – and some that weren’t. Hours I spent with individuals like Jesse Owens, U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson, Charles Colson, Archie Griffin and others left strong, positive impressions. I’ll never forget the words of Joni Eareckson Tada – a speaker, author, artist and singer who became incredibly accomplished despite becoming a quadriplegic as a teenager. She told me, “I shudder to think what my life would have been like if I had not become paralyzed.” Wow!

But it’s the “everyday people” who’ve come into my life, sometimes just briefly, that have had the greatest impact of all. A kind word here, a wise rebuke there, a casual comment that echoed long after they had departed. Voices of experience and insight, counsel from people who’ve “been there, done that” to help me in working through various problems and decisions.

The apostle Paul apparently also understood the importance of books we read and people we meet. Writing to his disciple, Timothy, he said, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments (the equivalent of books at the time)” (2 Timothy 4:13).

Earlier in the same book, Paul vividly described the multi-generational impact people can have: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). When Jesus instructed His followers, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), He was already envisioning the countless millions through the centuries that one day would commit their lives to Him by faith.

So I ask you: What are the challenging, thought-provoking books you’re reading? And who are the people you’re encountering from day to day, individuals that are having a meaningful impact on your life? Five years from now, as Charlie Jones said, you’ll be a different person because of them. Especially if one of those books is the Bible.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a…Book! What’s a Book?

Writing a blog, you never know where inspiration will come from. At least I don’t. Just this morning I saw this photo, posted by a Facebook friend in Poland. What a visual statement about our times!

All five of the people seated are reading, but what’s the guy on the right using? For people of my generation, that’s a silly question. But in centuries to come, might sociologists, anthropologists – and even educators – be discussing the relative merits of that antiquated communication device, that thing called the “book”?

Imagine the conversation: “The book was a simple tool, really. It had no on-off switch, required no batteries, nor could it be recharged. When you were finished reading you…well, you put it down, often never to pick it up again, and you picked up another…book!” “Really? How quaint. What primitive times those were!”

If you were to look in my family room, you’d see I’ve placed great value on simple, non-electronic instruments known as books. Even though I do much of my reading these days on computers, a tablet (in my case, an iPad), and now a smart phone, I’ll never lose my deep affection for real books. Part of it’s sensory: They have a distinctive feel, the paper and ink, the gloss on the cover, the heft, especially of classic literary tomes. Then there’s the smell, even of musty books that have been around for a long time; it gives them character. And the sound, the rustle of pages as they turn, the satisfied “thump” books make when you close them.

No question, digital books and other publications on tablets and smart phones are convenient, and add no additional weight after being downloaded. I recall many times lugging books in a briefcase to keep me company while traveling.

But there’s something about a book, holding it, carrying it, opening it time and again as you advance along the journey the author has created for you. Somehow, turning pages as you proceed toward your destination – the last page – allows you to bond with the book, sometimes resulting in a cherished, lifelong friendship.

As time passes, I realize, I’ll be a member of a shrinking minority. Increasingly, people will know books as something you retrieve with the touch of a screen, and read with the deft flip of a fingertip. No matter – as long as people continue to read, I guess it doesn’t matter what media are used for accessing the books.

And I hope that, despite increasingly sophisticated technology, people will always be drawn to that timeless, most treasured book of all, the Bible. Whether in paper or visible digitally, I’m convinced it’s the one resource for experiencing life as God intended.

After all, we’re told, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). No matter whether it’s read in paper form or on some technological medium – just as long as it’s read.

Building with Boards . . . or Words

When we moved to Chattanooga in 1981, one of my career goals was to write a book. Over the years since, that dream has been realized and surpassed. It’s been my privilege to engage in writing and co-authoring about a dozen books.

Nearing completion of one book for a local company, I’m about to begin another about a family-owned company in the Midwest. I’ve learned much as a book author these three decades, but perhaps most striking is that book writing is a lot like building a house.

When people sometimes tell me they admire people who can write, I respond that I admire people with mechanical gifts. My father and grandfather were handymen; somehow the mechanic gene skipped right over me. Whenever something in our home needs to be fixed, fear fills my heart. Yet I see a correlation between working on a dwelling and dwelling on words.

Imagine all of the components of a house piled on the tract where it’s to be built. Boards and bricks, cement and steel, pipes and wires, nails, screws and plastic – all in a heap. “What a mess!” That’s until the craftsmen – the carpenters, masons, electricians, painters and plumbers – start making sense of the tangle.

Slowly, their skilled hands start forming the house: Foundation first, then frame, flooring, walls, ceilings, roof, fixtures and paint. Order built out of confusion.

Writing a book, the experience is similar. Interviews and research, “blueprints” of outlines and notes. From these emerge words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters. All accumulated raw material eventually morphing into a book. It’s a daunting, sometimes intimidating process – but so fulfilling when it’s done.

So I embrace Psalm 45:1: “My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."

Back to the Bookshelf

This summer I’m returning to a first love: Reading books. As a boy I always had my nose in a book; that continued well into adulthood. But in recent years, my time with books has diminished dramatically. I’m aiming to change that, at least for a few months.

I used to read 30-40 books a year. Now I struggle to get through a dozen. I read a lot via the Internet and e-mail, of course, but it’s not the same. To me, reading a book is similar to nurturing a relationship. It demands commitment and hours of dedicated attention. Holding a book is tangible, organic; the texture of the paper under my fingertips, the rustle of the pages as they turn.

Reading also requires giving something of myself, unlike passively watching a TV program or even browsing Internet sites. In reading a good book, fiction or non-fiction, I eagerly anticipate what a turn of the page might present – new information to learn, a new adventure to experience. Finishing the last page is like bidding farewell to a good friend.

One reason for my recaptured zeal is that my favorite TV shows are on hiatus. “House,” “Bones,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Mentalist” are taking a break, a respite they and I both need. I have temporarily escaped TV’s gravitational field.

There is no biblical mandate to read books, although we are exhorted to study and meditate on God’s Word. But the apostle Paul indicates he was an avid reader, writing in 2 Timothy 4:13, “When you come, bring…my scrolls, especially the parchments.”

I’m off to a good start. Already I have finished two books and am well into two others. More volumes near my desk seem to beg, “Read me!” I intend to appease some of them during the next weeks.