Bad Soup

These are the books that I am currently reading:

Psalms, Songs Along the Way - Kathleen Nielson, The Kingdom of God - Martyn Lloyd Jones, Confessions - St. Augustine, The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaiah and 2 Corinthians from the Bible

     I am a firm believer that for the Christian, good books are a means of grace.   For the Christian that does not read, he or she can only receive regurgitated books.  Regurgitated food may be somewhat sustaining, but not very tastey.  Why would one not partake of a banquet of choice food, yet open wide his mouth for someone else to regurgitate what they had previously eaten?   Now, I am not naïve to the fact  that there are great hindrances to sitting down and eating at the table of good wholesome books.  It reminds me of bad soup.

     There was a time when I refused to eat any kind of soup.  In fact, it was years before I ate soup again.  This was all due to an encounter I had with my father and a batch of bad vegetable soup.  He was making lunch one day, and some rather “limp” vegetable soup was all that was “on tap”.  Not only was I not allowed to decline the “soup”, but was made to partake.  I vowed to never let soup touch my lips again.  But, one day, I encountered a beautiful bowl of cream of crab on a cold evening. 

     We were having some sort of gathering in our home and as I came down the stairs, all of my senses alighted on a large cream colored bowl filled with the most delicious smelling soup.  Oh, and there was bread.  I ate, and I decided to give soup another try.

       I was not a reader until I encountered someone who was in love with books.  I said to myself, “Well, there must be something to this – just look at her!”   Then, a book captured me and reeled me in.  I wanted more.  I was sixteen and it was the summer.  Lifeguards  have three choices when they work at a sparsely populated country club pool.  One, become a proficient card shark.  Two,  become bronzed to perfection.  Three, you can read.  So, since the first two options were not materializing for me, I read.  

     So, if you are not a reader, go ahead, try the soup. 

                                                                                                   Your Fellow Sojourner