Not All Reading Is Fully Beneficial
The first time I felt it, was from reading the novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The last time I felt it, was in the loss of a dear friendship to me.
I don’t know if there are times when books or friendships bring to us that feeling of a structure that can create a black hole that sucks life from us, but I can say that when I read books as a very emotionally-sensitive person, I feel them intensely, for better or worse.
I read and can see each scene, and each plot device, and resonate with each similie, metaphor, allusion, and turn of phrase.
I think there are certain books that are designed, especially if the author in question has been given a gift with words by God, and an anointing for wordsmithing, which are designed to draw us in and leave us with something, a treasure or an antitreasure, if you will, if we let them affect us.
For those of us who are emotionally sensitive, we experience books in a different way, and as a result, we may have to read books through a filter in order to prevent negative structures from becoming erected by the assaults of the critters, especially of authors whose flow is defiled.
For example, those of you who know William Butler Yeats, might know that he practiced automatic writing, and had a way with words, and as a result, he was completely tied up with powers that were not of the kingdom.
Life-Giving Writings
Lewis and Tolkien, conversely, had streams that were plugged into the Lord as their source, and, as a result, for those who read his material, we see principles throughout that are not accompanied by defilement. Conversely, it is like a white hole manifesting when I read these. Especially when the relationships are lifegiving and mutually beneficial rather than sucking and depleting.
For example, the discovery of the White Sapling in The Return of the King shewed forth the life-giving relationship between Mithrandir and Aragorn II Elessar, the King of Gondor. Further, Aragorn fulfilled the known legend in Gondor that said “the hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known”, when, after the wounded were taken to Gondor’s Houses of Healing following The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Aragorn healed them with the athelas plant. This exquisitely-penned account shows one of the deep dynamics at work in Tolkein’s writings that exposes the work of a Redemptive Gift Teacher.
With Reservation, A Further Recommendation For Understanding Relational Dynamics
I will say, though I cannot recommend her works apart from some serious reservations (for those of y’all that wonder about those reservations, feel free to ask Father about them), Joanne Rowling imbued her Harry Potter series with some of the best relational dynamics among friends, particularly around the area of loyalty, of any set of books I have thus far written. Granted, it was pulpy fiction, but the dynamics of interpersonal relationships in those books played out exceptionally well. If you have a solid filter in place, and Father gives you the grace to do so, read them, but only with a massive filter in place.
My Major Questions When Asking Whether Or Not We Should Read a Particular Book
- What is the source of the stream that flows from the essence of a writer, and thus, through their writings? “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
- Has Father given you permission or instruction to read that writing? If so, then there is something in it for you.
- Are there principles in the work that you are writing? If so, then read in order to hunt for the principles of a given work. For, all truth is God’s truth, whereever it may be found.
- Is there a filter you need to have in place as you read a particular work?
- Sometimes Father is going to give you a grace to read something that He will not give to another, and vice versa. Thus, just because you see Him teaching one through this or that work, does not mean you have a free pass to read. What you do have is a free pass to talk to Father about the book or piece in question. Use that pass repeatedly. Discern, discern, discern. For example, because of the witchcraft in HP, it is not something I would readily recommend to any and everyone. Same with Yeats, or any others. I also have some real reservations about recommending a believer read Calvin’s writings, if they are susceptible to despair that could be magnified by reading the works of a man that believed in double predestination. For those who wish to wade into a particular work, great care should be exercised in discerning what is meat to eat and what is bone to reject.
This might sound like a laborious set of tasks for some, but when we use these filters as we read, we read ore effectively and with an eye toward executing more in alignment with the priorities of the Kingdom of God.
Bear with me, this might be long…
I have always had a filter on while reading due to a Christian mindset: what is good, wrong, right, ethical, etc. However, it was not until I seemingly sprang a spiritual trap in fourth grade that I became much more consciously aware of it, because until that age I believed that magic wasn’t real, as in, it didn’t exist in the actual physical world. When my grandfather delivered a sermon about Halloween and related a story about table magic practiced in the family (which lead to the family converting to Christianity), that instantly broke my illusions about the spiritual world. Though it was not the intent of the sermon in the least, I was swamped by fear and became very sick for months afterward. Over the course of that season I shut down my spiritual senses even tighter than they already were, but I also knew I had to conquer the fear, whatever the cost. I spiralled. It was very strange. I could no longer tolerate listening to the passages about Jesus encountering demons, even though he invariably took authority over them, and I was so depressed I could not bring myself to sing in church. All the happiness was sucked out of me. It took a year to really get a grip again.
What is interesting is that until that time, I had been reading mysteries, but at that point I transitioned to reading science fiction and fantasy most of the time. My motivation was partly that I wanted to conquer the fear. The more I knew about and understood the spiritual world, even if through a glass darkly, the less I would fear it. And I did set to my task with the dark glass in mind because fantasy explicitly does *not* reflect reality on earth as we know it. Conversely, I was also motivated by joy, for those rare glimpses of heaven and eudaimonia in CS Lewis’ and Tolkien’s works. To engage safely with fantasy I had to ask myself questions as I read and judge the truth in my reading, separating my own counsel from the messages I received. It wasn’t just fantasy; looking back I had another set of discernment criteria for books about the young adult world, or the modern world, or any subject.
First of all, I do believe that the use of magic in reality on this earth (the manipulation of spiritual or supernatual power not from God or yielded through/to God) is evil. I also include fortunetelling, ritual, and false religion in this category. No matter what I read I would not allow my reading to undermine this belief. So I asked myself as I read fantasy that stood against this worldview:
1) Where does the power come from? Is it apparently endemic in the world or genetics, or does it come from another being or “higher power”? How is it invoked? Will this power destructively discharge on its own if not used—is there an option to refuse it?
2) If I was a protagonist in this story, how would I react? Given what I know, what would be the godly thing to do? Had I the protagonist’s knowledge of the world, would I know better than to take this or that path?
3) How does the practice of magic influence the wielder? What is the fruit?
4) What beings are involved? Are their origins and position they claim relative to God credible? (For example, sometimes stories claim that elves and faerie are neutral, but we know that we are either for or against God, so that claim cannot be trusted.)
5) What are the common elements that appear or the “spiritual laws” or principles that seem to hold across the genre of fantasy? (Given that they usually tell us more about how things work in the enemy’s camp than in the heavenly camp…)
I drew my own conclusions about the validity of the story I was reading from these answers, and kept them in mind as I read.
I stopped reading when anything got too scary and gave myself permission to skip, pause, read ahead, or shut my eyes whenever I needed to. I can name quite a few books that I took to my mother for a second opinion—Pullman’s Golden Compass trilogy, for example. Some I went back to read things if or when I was ready, and some I did not. There were some definite missteps that I could not have predicted from cover descriptions. When you read this way, you realize that many things that seem fair are not so, even within the rules of the world in the story. (HP wizarding and schooling culture is terribly compromised; as time has gone on, I notice more and more people recognizing that.) Occasionally I found truths in very unlikely sources. I recognized my own level of spiritual oppression in some dark contexts that more lighthearted or Christian sources probably wouldn’t dare to explore. But I was already living a version of that reality. I simply needed to know my experience wasn’t crazy, and find language for that experience, before I could let it go.
Eventually, I did let go of all that fear. I learned to relax just enough not only to endure darkness but to turn again to light and allow the Holy Spirit to live in me. The more I learn of God’s world, the more I fine-tune my lenses to identify what is actually happening in these novels and stories. I celebrated last year how far I have come, and that I no longer need to test my courage. Around the same time, my interest in fiction of any media type subsided suddenly and disconcertingly.
Given all that, I think I tend to overestimate others’ level of discernment on these things because I am so used to not letting my guard down. 🙂 But I try to be careful about what I recommend and to whom.
Wow. Hmmmmm, I will ponder that, and do what I can to respond.