I have been re-reading the books that have meant the most to me lately. I have also been cheating by just listening to the books on my audiobook feature of the i-phone. Everything about how i lead and think and react comes from some book at some point that i read some years ago. Sometimes i feel as though i am nothing more than a culmination of all the books i have ever read. Good to great by jim Collins and Prayer by Phillip Yancey are two that i am going through right now. I have also just started the book written by two teenagers called "do hard things: a rebellion against low expectations."
it is in reading that i am inspired to think. it is off of the thoughts of others that my own thoughts begin to bounce and grow into something i can actually implement. Implementation is all i am really interested in. I forever and only think about how these words and thoughts and ideas will be able to find root in my own family, ministry and life. if they are no good to live with then they are useless to read in my opinion. but let me find one good solution or one good idea that i can put into motion in my own life and BANG....i am compelled to read all the more. I write in the margins of every book just to maximize the "look-back-through- the- book" approach. I dont have to re-read it as much as i just need to read what touched me and spoke to me when i read it the first time. This is one of the primary ways i stay fresh and on edge about ministry and life....READ. Maxwell's rhyming is often annoying but this one he got right: LEADERS ARE READERS.
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Rob, I just now discovered your blog, and this title jumped out at me; it was a favorite quote of one of my bosses at Canaan Land Ministries in Alabama. I'm also reminded of a billboard my wife and I saw years ago on the way to Florida: "Those who do not read have no advantage over those who cannot read." Of all the things we squander, the ability to read ranks among the most tragic.
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