Meals are great times for conversations. I learn much while eating. Asking questions. Listening to answers. Discussing issues. Like various food groups, healthy dialogue can bring a variety of perspectives.

Recently, my meals were very delicious. Breakfast with Philip Yancey. Lunch with Eugene Peterson.

How?

Eating cereal early in the morning, I read one of Yancey’s books. Though I had read it many times before, it never gets old. Thought provoking questions we ponder but either ignore or become controlled by. Honesty, research, and depth, all about real issues and all presented in interesting form. Breakfast challenged my mind. 

Eating lunch at noon, I listened to an audiobook of Eugene Peterson. I had read the book before; this time I listened to it. More questions, more authenticity, more depth — this time in Peterson flow and style. My ears heard. My mind processed. My soul was nourished.

What healthy books have you recently tasted, swallowed, digested? What books are on your list – ready to be read or heard? What limits your reading? Why?

It’s healthy for us to invite friends over for a meal, a morning, an afternoon, an evening. Turn the pages. Hit play. A book. An article. A podcast. Think. Learn. Grow.

Well, what did I enjoy for dinner that day? Silence. Another therapeutic method of mental and spiritual growth. Slowly breathing, slowly eating, and slowly processing that day’s previous conversations with Yancey and Peterson.

Who will you learn from today?