La Escritora

With the Presidential Inauguration fast approaching, things are heating up in Washington. Just tonight I heard on the late news that Michael Newdow, the same atheist who led an attempt to remove the words “under God” from the pledge of allegiance, is now leading a group of atheists in an attempt to remove the phrase “so help me God” from the President’s oath of office. Atheists claim that the phrase is forcing the inauguration to become a religious event. They also hope to ban the invocation and are suing Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rick Warren as well as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and several inaugural officials. Should the atheists win the case, the ramifications could take an even larger toll on our nation. How sad it is that people in this nation want to remove all references to the name of God, the very One who gave this land to our forefathers and allowed them to establish a free nation on it. I certainly hope Newdow loses this case like he lost the last one.

As a child, I was always an avid reader—a full-blooded bookworm. Around the age of seven, I acquired my first library card. I would read book after book and series after series. A proud member of Pizza Hut’s “Book It” club, I read books to earn free pizza; and I even earned money for my reading by participating in my local bank’s “Bucks for Books” summer reading program. No matter where I was, I always had a good book nearby.

When I reached junior high, however, something changed. I began to lose my passion for reading. This change resulted partly because of an increased load of school work. However, another less obvious factor that contributed to my loss of interest in reading was the development of technology.

During my teen years, the Internet also reached its adolescence, and the myriad of cyber distractions that came with it began pulling my attention further away from books. With the advent of instant messaging, online gaming, social networking, and YouTube, books quickly dropped to a negative rating on my scale of interest. In fact, I even began to convince myself that I hated reading books.

The dumbest generation

As I headed into my first year of college, my dislike for book reading grew even more intense. Reading fifty-or-so pages of course material each night was not my idea of fun. During the first two years of college, I shunned reading anything beyond my course requirements. Pleasure reading became a nonexistent term in my vocabulary.

Like most people my age, I chose instead to devote my free time to the mind-numbing activities of instant messaging, Facebook, and aimlessly surfing the web. I started to become a stereotypical member of what Mark Bauerlein calls “the dumbest generation,” in his book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30).

Instead of seeking useful information from well-researched books, I began to absorb mostly meaningless “information” from what others posted on their personal blogs or social networking pages.

However, unlike the growing majority of my generation, I refused to be branded with this “dumb” stereotype. I decided I would not allow myself to be made ignorant by my dependence on technology.

What changed?

Sometime during my third year of college, I made a realization that changed my outlook completely: reading is essential. My old childhood hobby that I had been shunning for so long was actually the key to becoming an informed, well-educated citizen. I am not entirely sure what caused this realization. Perhaps, it was a combination of factors.

A waste of time?

Although I had nearly abandoned the art of reading, my upbringing kept me from neglecting it completely. From the time I was a child, my parents encouraged me to continue reading. Even during my high school and college years, my mom would advise me to sharpen my mind by reading during my vacations. I have to admit, though, I did not always appreciate her advice; nor did I always follow it. In fact, at times I even scorned it.

I would laugh to myself as my parents—both avid readers—would spend an entire Friday night just sitting quietly at home, one on each end of the living room—reading. Meanwhile, I would engage in my typical generational activities of Facebook chat and YouTube while catching some of my favorite shows on television. I laughed to myself every week as I thought about how not-so-typical Friday nights were at the Wolstenholme household. Instead of doing something “fun,” my parents were just sitting around reading.

Despite the humor I found in the situation, I came to realize the value of my parents’ not-so-typical Friday nights. While they were enriching their knowledge and strengthening their minds, I was simply wasting time.

The writer who never read

Another factor that caused me to rethink the value of reading lay in the somewhat obvious: my college major.

I began to realize how poorly informed I was in the realm of books when, as a publishing major, I constantly faced questions about what I like to read and whether I plan to publish books some day. I had made up my mind early in my college years that I was primarily interested in article writing and magazine publishing and was quick to tell people this. However, I was still rather embarrassed to admit that I really didn’t read books.

Regardless of my major, I knew virtually nothing about books anymore. I was forced to the realization that, no matter how much I knew about the production of books, I did not know any more (in fact, I probably knew less) than the average person when it came to actually reading books.

Reading to grow

The third factor that pushed me toward reading was my Christian faith.

I knew that, as a Christian, I ought to be reading; but I lacked the motivation to do so. Thankfully, God had already begun working on me, though. As I began to realize the importance of reading for the purposes of sharpening my mind and enhancing my career, I began to gain an interest in books again.

Consequently, during the summer after my third year of college, I picked up some books and began reading. One of these books was Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. Recommended to me by a former professor, this book was instrumental in renewing my passion for reading.

In his book, MacDonald shows the importance of reading for spiritual growth. He advises that, in addition to regular Scripture reading, a person always ought to be reading at least one other good book. MacDonald goes on to say that “If [a person] is not reading, the chances are strong that he is not growing.” Like Bauerlein, MacDonald also points out the sad decline of reading among the younger generation.

After reading MacDonald’s book, I resolved that I was going to make reading a higher priority in my life. I purposed to spend more time reading the Scriptures and began to make a list of additional books that I plan to read.

What now?

Although I have not actually read Bauerline’s book (yet am blogging about it—point in case , I plan to do so as soon as I can get my hands on it. I have made it my goal to maintain a proper balance between technology and books and hope that the rest of my generation will soon catch on. I refuse to be a part of the “dumbest generation” any longer.

Over the past decade, Google has changed the world in more ways than one. Not only has Google become one of the nation’s most plentiful sources of information, but it has also recently taken on the challenge of solving the world’s problems.

A message on Google’s homepage announced Saturday that the search engine was celebrating its tenth birthday. As part of the celebration, Google announced that it is hosting Project 10¹⁰⁰.

With the slogan, “May those who help the most win,” Project 10¹⁰⁰ challenges users to submit their best ideas for changing the world around them. In return for the idea that will help the most people, Google promises it will provide funding to make the idea a reality.

Although it began 10 years ago as a tool to help internet users find information, Google is now reaching beyond cyberspace to help solve problems for more than just information seekers.

What’s a life worth living if it has no real meaning or purpose?

Some may say that a life free of pain and full of pleasure makes living worthwhile. But reason tells us that life is only a means to an end. Therefore, a life without an end purpose is wasted. In light of this reality, we are constantly bombarded with books, articles, seminars–you name it!–all designed for the purpose of helping us find true meaning in our lives. But does all this advice really help?

Unlike many of these kinds of books, John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life will not leave you feeling confused or empty inside after reading it. Instead, this testimony of one man’s search for purpose in his life will encourage all readers as it challenges them to discover the same truths Piper did.

Join Piper in his study to find the purpose in life, and you are guaranteed to discover how not to waste your life.