ANOTHER DEFENSE OF READING

first he was so nice and I felt bad being a disappointment to him ... then I read the book heard what he had to say and knew that he was fierce ... so I turned away ... then I began to read about the spirit about grace power and predestination about pentecost as well as easter and I thought I saw a way of return ... an advocate to plead my case for me and get me back the original birthright ... then I got distracted and spent a few months doing something else ... and that pattern of on and off attention I continued in for some years ... I am not the recipient of direct revelation ... on the contrary I receive and sense it only by indirection as I suspect most of us do ... but if most do it by observation and experience I do it by reading ... not only about grace but about grace-filled people ... not only about the spirit but about spirited people ... and I begin through this comparison of theory and practice to suspect that more of what we do is done by the spirit than we suspect ... how else for example would we ever get a touch of joy ... what else would explain what teddy roosevelt abraham lincoln and sam grant clearly have in common