Last Saturday I
was invited to speak at my church’s women’s tea on the theme of “books.” I
asked my dad for suggestions, and he pointed me to Ecclesiastes 12:12. “My son,
beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much
study is a weariness of the flesh.” As a grad student, I can confirm that the
verse is very true. In fact, I’d consider putting it on t-shirts for my
classmates. But I didn’t think that’s what the event’s organizers had in mind,
so instead I focused on the ways books in general and fiction in particular
have influenced my life. I chose this because the value of reading non-fiction
for spiritual growth can be relatively obvious. The influence of stories is
more subtle but no less real.
We get a hint of
the importance of stories in the structure of the Bible. Though we think of it
as one book, the Bible is actually many books in many different genres. It
contains theological treatises (such as Romans), law codes, also poetry,
prophecy (in both prose and poetry) and lots of narratives. Stories take up a
large percentage the Bible, and while many of them are history, Jesus’ parables
are a kind of fiction. God uses this huge variety of forms to communicate to us
because different types of writing speak to our experiences in different ways
and affect us differently. And if God considers stories a helpful way of
communicating truth, so should we.
One of the first
things the Bible tells us about human beings is that we’re made in the image of
God. We find this out in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. At
that point, all we’ve been told about God is that He created everything and did
it by speaking. Authors, like their Creator create using words. So every time
we pick up a book we should recognize that God’s image is being expressed. Of
course, that doesn’t mean that everything in every book is good. Authors are
also fallen, so we need to read any book with discernment. But we should give
thanks to God for the amazing privilege of being made in His image and for the
joy we gain from seeing the ways authors intentionally or unintentionally reveal
His image in them.
Stories can aid
our spiritual growth by helping us develop empathy. They let us get inside the
head of someone different from us and understand the world as they experience
it. This in turn can help us understand the real people who have had similar
experiences. When you meet someone on the street, you don’t know what they’re
thinking or their backstory. But when you read a book, the author often tells
you that, which makes it easier to understand and relate to the characters.
Fiction is also a
huge source of encouragement for me, something my parents taught me at a young
age. When I was 10, my parents took my family to Europe for several months, and
we traveled to Hungary. We took a night train into Budapest and transferred to
another train that would eventually take us to the town where we would be
staying. The schedule said the train would have a snack car, so my parents
planned on eating breakfast on the train. As the train left the station, a
blizzard hit our area. It was then that we discovered the train had little to
no heat. My brother and my father walked along the train looking for the snack
car. Snow blew upward between holes in the floor of the passages connecting
different cars. One bicycle car was covered with ice because the door was
opened. My dad tried to close it, but it was jammed. To quote my father, “the
bathrooms looked like they hadn’t been cleaned since the fall of Communism”
(this was 1999). My father and brother reached the end of the train, but there
was no snack car. So my brother and I sat in the compartment bundled up in our
coats while my mom fed us gummy bears that she had found in her purse. We had
been reading The Hobbit as a family, so my dad said, “Bilbo Baggins describes
adventures as ‘nasty, unpleasant things that make you late for breakfast.’ That
means we’re having an adventure.” Suddenly, I was excited because I was on an
adventure. I was still cold and hungry, but I wasn’t miserable because I saw my
predicament differently.
I still draw on
Tolkien for encouragement and inspiration, especially when life seems
overwhelming. Tolkien does a great job depicting both genuine good and genuine
evil and helping us recognize the difference. He also shows us ordinary people,
like the Hobbits, standing up against this evil and making a difference. Good
stories aren’t just a way to escape from the evil in the world. They’re a
picture of what we can do, and they can provide motivation to take risks and do
things that may be frightening. G.K. Chesterton once said, “Fairy tales do not
tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist.
Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” The problems that face
the heroes in fairy tales are symbols of the evil in the world. And when we see
characters in stories slaying their dragons, it can encourage us to stand up
and face our dragons.
We’re all busy, so
I’m sure many of you don’t have much time for reading. But when you do
encounter stories, either in books or in movies, I think it’s helpful to think
about them and draw lessons or encouragement from them. I’d also like to
encourage you to give thanks to God for the gift of books and the way He can
use books of all kinds to make us more like Christ.
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