day no. 15,983: pipe in teeth, pencil in hand

"For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand." -- C.S Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius' On the Incarnation

Original works inspire grateful hearts to write devotional works. While there might be much benefit in reading their insights, they would in turn and in concert urge us to spend more time in the original works that inspired their delight rather than spend our time meditating upon their meditations of them. Their meditations were meant to draw more attention to the source, not to their summaries.

"The dogma is the drama." -- Dorothy L. Sayers

We should read books of good reflections, but we should never neglect reading the source of light and substance that made the reflection possible. Drinking from the bucket should lead us to draw from the well.

"Visit many good books, but live in the Bible." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon