DEPENDS ON HOW YOU READ IT

I should never have read the article, by Ron Charles on Dr. Seuss’ book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!.  I should have seen the tag, Washington Post, and stopped.  But no.  I read the article.  Cliff notes:

• 800,000 copies were sold in 2018
• It is a yuppie dream – or nightmare
• White boy with great promise
• Individual supremacy, solitude
• American myth
• “It celebrates young adults’ dreams of escaping from home in the warm embrace of a children’s book they associate with home.’
• “For people who understand the benefits of community, the importance of learning to live together and the emptiness of being as “famous as famous can be,/with the whole world watching, you win on TV,” … is nonsense – and not the good kind.”

I have this book and love it.  I read this book and come away with an entirely different feeling than Ron Charles. 

There is encouragement: 

• Congratulations!  Today is your day.  You’ll be on your way up!
• Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying
• There is fun to be done!  Points to be scored. 

We need to be encouraged.  How wonderful to be told you will escape.  Life can be fun.

There are truths

• And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
• There is a waiting place – you will be waiting for a plane to go, a phone to ring, a Better Break, another Chance
• Some times you’ll play lonely games too.  Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.
• Alone … you’ll be quite a lot.

We need to be able to face the truths in our lives.  We are the ones that have to make decisions and there are times we have to wait.  There are times we will be alone and there are times we are our own worst enemy.

Life is not always easy:

• Because, sometimes, you won’t.  Bang-up and Hang-ups can happen to you.  And your gang will fly on.
• Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.
• Do you dare to go in?  How much can you lose?  You can get so confused.

Life is not a bed of roses.  We will make mistakes.  We will have friends turn their backs on us.  We will be confused.

There are unrealistic goals:

• You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV
• And will you succeed?  Yes!  You will, indeed!
• KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS

We need unrealistic goals.  We might never win $2+ million on Jeopardy, but maybe, just maybe, we could.  We must have the desire and determination to succeed and to move mountains or we will be stuck in one spot…forever.

The book ends with:  So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!  Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting.  So…get on your way!

On your way?  I would hope so!  We are not supposed to stay in one spot forever.  We are to grow.  And learn.  And make decisions.  We are to get on our way!

How can two people read the same book and come away with such a different meaning?  How…

If you think there is controversy over this Dr. Seuss book, --- think about the controversy over the Bible --- oh my goodness. 

I believe Mr. Charles pointed out how wrong the Dr. Seuss book is because it does not agree with his agenda and today’s philosophy that individuality is wrong and everything should be for the benefit of the community.  Many people use the Bible in the same way.  They read it to find something they can be offended by and argue it is not relative in today’s world. 

But, how can I read the Bible and know it is true?  How can the Bible give me peace?  How can I be sure the Bible is the inspired Word of God?

How?  Faith!  Plain and simple.  I have faith!  And it is through my faith that I read the Bible.  Without that faith, it is easy to discount, discredit, and discard the Bible as just another book.

I read the Bible as a broken, sinner.  I read the Bible as a human who realizes, on my own, I am lost, but with belief in Jesus as God’s only Son who died on the Cross for ME, I will have eternal life.  I read the Bible to learn.  I read the Bible with an open mind and heart.  I read the Bible because the LORD gives me wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding and so I will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter my heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to my soul.  Discretion will protect me, and understanding will guard me.  (Proverbs 2:part of 6, 10-11 written to make it personal)

How do you read the Bible?