Dwight Fletcher | Reading = intellectual growth

GOD CREATED us with intellect, and He wants us to use that intellect to honour Him. We have to maximise all that God has given us, and there is always opportunity for us to grow and to expand in areas that we have been limited in before. As human beings, we are creatures of habit, so once we find something that works, we habitually continue to do it. When we learn something new our brains create neural pathways, and we get stuck in that habit, sometimes limiting our intellectual growth.

We need to, therefore, expand our comfort zone and begin investigating and doing things outside of it. We need to find new ways of approaching familiar things and also try completely new things. The ‘unfamiliar’ gifts us with diverse experiences which vastly increases our knowledge. Proverb 18:15 (TLB) says, “The intelligent man is always open to new ideas. In fact, he looks for them”. The brain responds to new things by creating new neural pathways, and each new pathway becomes increasingly stronger with repetition, giving us new skills and strengths.

In the mid-1990s, Kevin Plank was a football player, who was constantly frustrated with wearing heavy, sweaty shirts under his jersey during practice and on game days.

In 1996, Plank created an athletic undershirt for himself that stayed dry even during the toughest workouts and practices. It worked so well that he thought to try manufacturing and selling them to other athletes and started selling his shirts out of his car. Within two years, his company ‘Under Armour’ (UA)moved out of his trunk and into a legitimate warehouse and headquarters. Currently, UA is a well-known worldwide brand with nearly US$4 billion in annual revenues. Isaiah 54:2 (NIV) says: “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”

The word enlarge means to ‘grow large; to go beyond’. Make this the year that you start going beyond what you have been doing and ‘expand’ yourself intellectually. Many of us have the intellect as well as the creative energy to develop new ideas and start new ventures. One of the first and important steps in this process is reading.

Reading, regardless of the content is generally very good for our brain. Reading stimulates our imaginative process, and without conscious effort our brains translate the words we read into images that play like a movie in our minds. However, reading in our given field or area of giftedness increases our potential exponentially.

We need to find what are our natural ‘giftings’ and abilities are and develop them. This process is most effective when we start from childhood. As we grow older, God wants us to become the best that we can be in our areas of giftedness. To grow and keep growing intellectually we must begin reading. The Bible says that whatever field we select, we should be as disciplined as possible and learn as much as possible. “Give yourselves to disciplined instruction; open your ears to tested knowledge.” Proverbs 23:12 (MSG)

Philip Pape stated, “Reading one hour per day in your chosen field will make you an international expert in seven years.” Reading leads to expertise, and expertise leads to success. The US statistics indicate that:

– 25 per cent of people have not read a book in the last year

– 46 per cent of adults score in the lowest two levels of literacy.

It’s reputed that Jamaicans don’t generally read, but successful German film director Werner Herzog warned, “Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it.”