How to Fall in Love with Learning Again: Practical Methods for Lifelong Success
Have you ever lost the love of reading? Have you recently said you used to love reading, and now you don't? I think we don't lose the enjoyment of reading, but we replaced it with technology.
In this blog post, I will be sharing my personal testimony regarding reading. As I was sitting in my living room, a random thought crossed my mind. It took me back so quickly to middle school and how I visited the school library to pick up a book and read it at home.
I didn’t do that often, but when I did, I immersed myself in it. Then overtime, I left that behind and never picked a book until I came to the United States from Puerto Rico. I wanted to learn English as fast as I could, so my ESL teacher gifted me a an easy-to-read book (I believe it was middle grade) and back then, Google wasn't a thing yet.
So I didn't know how to pronounce words, and to find a definition, I needed to use a physical dictionary. We had to put in the work. Nowadays, we want artificial intelligence to do the work for us.
The Beauty of Learning and Using What God Gifted Us With
The reason why I felt led to write this blog post is because we are losing our intellectual knowledge to some machine. As I was growing up, I was losing the love of the written word. It wasn't until now, my doctoral journey, that God allowed me to go back what I once enjoyed. It all started with His Word.
I don't believe for a second when someone tells me they don't enjoy reading anymore. We give it too much time to doomscrolling, which is doing just that "dooming" our lives. It reminds me of the movie "Slumberland" where the excitement happens when they're sleeping, and through dreaming, they're conquering something or trying to find answers.
Don't let that be you. The most valuable asset in this world (and not just organizations) is people. We are valuable to God. Why waste what God has given us for His glory?
Discovering Powerful Insights From Learning
I was watching a YouTube video about learning, and quickly, I read this comment that says something along these lines, "Now I understand why the most intelligent people can't eventually understand the most simple things, for example, the gospel." My whole entire being just went, "Whoa!" I immediately thought this person was right.
Then I thought about Proverbs 3:5-6 that says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Even the word of God reminds us not to lean on our own understanding. See, what happens here is that if we do lean on our own understanding, we will disregard the word of God.
What I have noticed in college and university is that they are trying to reframe our brains, our understanding by using other's theories and formulating our own theories to the point that we don’t involve God in it. This is a problem especially for Christians. What I teach here is the importance of including God in everything we do, and make Him a priority before we start our day. This also means that before we go to bed, we also make Him a priority.
So what does this means? It means that learning should be enjoyable, should also include connections, expansion, and involves the word of God. Learning should not be something that we dread, but intrigue us to discovering more. We should also do this when studying the Bible.
We will discover treasures, which are insights we can share or teach others. These insights can help us figure out whether they can be turned into lessons, a digital product, a message, etc. We won't ever know until we immerse into the written word.
Don't Let a Machine Steal Your Mind
It may be fun to use these artificial intelligence apps and create with them, solve problems, and enhance our skills. But we have to realize that without these machines, our intellectual knowledge can expand so much further than these machines ever will. It's impossible for a machine to try to act, think, even feel like a human. Only God can search the heart.
"I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve" (Jeremiah 17:10, NIV).
Protect what is most precious: your heart and mind.
What To Do About It
If you haven't picked up a book in a long time, find one that is short and simple to read. You can start by reading the Bible, and pick one of the shortest book. I recommend the Book of 2 John, 3 John, Philemon, Obadiah, and Jude. Middle grade and Young Adult Christian books are excellent too and I recommend this blog for great Christian books to read. The key here is to build healthy reading habits so that we expand our knowledge and improve our understanding.
Final Words
Don't let these machines win. By giving it your full attention through doomscrolling, you're already losing this battle. God wants us to immerse in His Word, so that through His Word, He will show us the things we will never discover on our own. Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (NIV).
Follow this blog to learn different ways to use what you learn and grow your own skills.
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