I love books. I love to sit a conference or in a course, to read a post by a friend or see a review on facebook, to hear about a book, and then to buy that book. Amazon makes it easy to put on my Android device.
And forever after I am able to say, “Oh yes. I’ve got that book. It’s on my reading list.” And we talk, we readers, about the piles of books in our queue.
I have the same love affair with particular pens and with blank journals. The way that a particular paper takes the ink of a particular pen, the way that a particular pencil writes perfectly smooth on the paper. I get chills typing that. Because, of course, I am typing these words, not writing them in my journal(s) with my pen(s) or pencil(s).
I have enough of my favorite pencil in my drawer to write a commentary on the Pentateuch. All five books. Three hundred words a day for the next decade. I have enough of my favorite pen that the last one may dry out before I can use it up by writing. I have enough Moleskine and Fieldnote pages that, at my current rate of consumption, Nancy may be able to use the last one as the guest register at my funeral.
Why do I tell you this?
Because some of us need to be honest with our addictions. Reading a book says, “I will do this, not that, with my time.” Writing a post or an essay or a journal says, “I will do this, not that, with my time.” And those are risky decisions. What if we choose the wrong book to read? What if we choose the wrong thing to write? And so some of us buy book and journals and pens and pencils because it gives us a buzz without the risk of actually writing.
But stewardship is not the accumulation of books and blank pages. Stewardship is the reading and living of them, wrestling with ideas and then sharing them.
300 words a day 
Frank Reed
Action v theory (or fantasy for some of us). It’s where the rubber meets the road for everyone and gets to where our hearts really are in all situations.
To quote a rather famous person (albeit an atheist of the first order – any believer who thinks “Imagine” is a great song hasn’t really listened to it) “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”. I am seeing this play out in my life and it’s disturbing.
Talk, preparation and all the other ‘getting ready to get ready’ activities are of the devil when they take precedence over actually doing something.
It’s an easy trap to fall into but aren’t those of the evil one usually that way and that’s why they are so effective?
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Jon Swanson
getting ready to get ready is all the challenge. Thanks Frank. And good morning.
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Joseph Ruiz (@SMSJOE)
Hi my name is Joe and I love pens/journals the smooth flow of ink on paper and I have a lengthy book queue that gives me a great deal of satisfaction. 😉
Thanks for the thought provoking post content is most important of all along with appropriate action of course!
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Jon Swanson
Hi Joe!
thanks.
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Jon Swanson
And then I read articles like this conversation on books with Francis Collins. http://nyti.ms/13TFkw1 and I start adding to my list of reading.
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Paul Merrill
I am shamefully addicted to pens. I try to stop the rate of my purchases, but it’s hard.
Here’s one I totally love – and it’s affordable! http://pmerrill.com/reviews/pen-review-schneider-slider-xb/
My analogy, along the lines of what you wrote – if I used every pen up that I have, I’d write about a thousand books. Also, some of them will dry out before I get a chance to use them. I should send some overseas to starving orphans.
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