Reading Plan

As I've mentioned before in a recent post, the Do Hard Things conference was in Nashville last Saturday, and I went. I had already read the book, so I knew about the brothers' reading plan when they were sixteen. But they talked about it more on Saturday. I had been reading several books already this summer, but was inspired to read more. So I've selected eighteen books to read. I have no timeline yet. Here's the list:

Reasoning from the Scriptures with Muslims by Ron Rhodes
Reasoning from the Scriptures with Catholics by Ron Rhodes
Reasoning from the Scriptures with Jehovah's Witnesses by Ron Rhodes
What Is God Like? by Craig Groeschel
finish reading Start Here by Alex and Brett Harris
The Mentor Leader by Tony Dungy
Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
Chazown by Craig Groeschel
It by Craig Groeschel
re-read Do Hard Things by Ted Dekker
re-read Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Immanuel's Veins by Ted Dekker
From Playpen to Podium by Jeffrey Myers
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
I Know Why Angels Dance by Bryan Davis
Venom and Song by Wayne Thomas Batson
Havah by Tosca Lee

I have chosen to focus on six books for the time being: Reasoning from the Scriptures with Muslims, What is God Like?, Safely Home, Do Hard Things, The Abolition of Man, and The Mentor Leader. I hope to complete most, if not all of these, sometime in October.

Here is where it gets cool. With six books, plus my Bibles, I realized I would need bookmarks, because I cannot remember so many places where I paused from reading. As I reached to grab some two-year wallet-sized pictures of myself, I had an interesting idea. I thought, "What can I do with bookmarks that will be pleasing to God?" A somewhat silly question, yes, but the answer is awesome. I quickly went to my desk and pulled out some sticky-notes. I folded them the sticky part on itself to eliminate the sticky effects. On one side of the post-it, I wrote a person's name that I had been praying for. Then I listed five or six things that person specifically needed prayer for. On the flip side, I jotted down the name of a place I had been praying for, such as my school or church. I then listed five or six things that place needed prayer for. So now, when reading my books, I'll remember to pray for the person and place on my sticky-note. Cool idea, huh?