Head and Heart

The Art of Unlearning, Chapter 7, Part 3

There’s sadly a strain of faith that discounts “head knowledge” as inferior to heart change. The Bible doesn’t put one over the other and neither should we. Peter urges us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”[1] Our “head” can lead, inform and guard our heart; our heart is essential to keep our head thinking straight. When our passions go awry, we can convince ourselves of anything. The head and heart are complements, not competitors, in the abundant life.

When it comes to revival—great outpourings of ministry and a widespread response to the word of God—most people think the key is prayer. “Pray, pray, pray,” they’ll say, and I don’t disagree. Prayer is powerful, commanded, and should be a daily staple for earnest believers.

But what if there’s more to revival than prayer?

John Wesley was involved in the Great Awakening, one of the most widespread revivals in American history. He certainly did pray with fervor, but there was another important element behind such an historically significant work of God: Wesley and his followers read voraciously. In fact, he read many of his books while riding on horseback, traveling from town to town. Much later in life, when he finally had to succumb to traveling in a carriage, the first thing he did was fashion a bookshelf in the back of the carriage.

If you were a circuit-riding Methodist preacher during Wesley’s lifetime, you were expected to awake at four a.m. to read Scripture together for about an hour. Then, after breakfast, their practice was to read from six until noon from what Wesley called “The Christian Library,” great books of the faith that he thought every Christian should read.

Wesley’s brilliance in launching such a far-reaching movement was simple: you can’t give out what you don’t first take in. Otherwise, your ministry will resemble a fire that’s fed by paper; it may flare up immediately, but it’s going to burn out faster than can be believed.

Prayer is crucial to personal and ministry success, but let’s remember the equally vital role that wisdom plays in abundant life and outreach. Behind my desk, books on prayer take up almost an entire shelf, and I could double that number without even trying if I purchased just a fraction published on the topic. In contrast, I’ve found very few books on the necessity of strategic reading.