Every year, in the waning weeks of May, my high school teachers passed out summer reading lists. Thin sheets of paper floated down on our desks and landed with a thud, extinguishing teenage dreams of a carefree June and July. A dog-eared paperback of Cold Sassy Tree tagged along on our family road trip while Edith Hamilton's Mythology taunted me from the backseat. These books were a constant reminder that August was coming, along with its essays and pop quizzes. Books were not an enjoyable escape but a ball and chain.
And yet now, as a mother, I can't imagine going anywhere this summer without a good book. I carry one with me to swimming pools and camp pick-ups, like Linus and his blue blanket. The world feels safer with a book in my hand; characters in stories have become dear companions. I have held my breath with Scout Finch in a sweltering Alabama courtroom and watched Jo March write by candlelight in a cold Massachusetts attic. I've wandered around Avonlea with Anne Shirley and felt Lucy's chills as the ice in Narnia melted, hearing that “Aslan is on the move.”1
Books are no longer a burden but a doorway into another world—a summer holiday with no gas pump or airline ticket required.
But what does a great story have to do with spiritual growth? How can something from the land of make-believe shape us in the very real and often difficult here and now?
Good Books Stretch Our Attention Span
From elementary classrooms to corporate boardrooms, it is clear that we live in the age of distraction. Even at elite universities, professors have found that their incoming freshmen lack the mental stamina to complete classic works of fiction. Instead of studying entire novels, many high school students are assigned brief excerpts from literature.2 Combine this with lives spent scrolling through bite-sized social media posts and ten-second video reels, and it is no wonder that our attention muscles are atrophying.
Biblical literacy is harder to achieve if basic literacy plummets. As one seminary professor, bewildered by this phenomenon, put it, “They didn't read. And you can't read the Bible well if you don't read.”3
As followers of Christ, we are called to be lifelong students of one book. The Word of God is rich and life giving, but we cannot receive all it has to offer if we cannot sit still long enough to study it. When we reach for a book instead of a screen in our down time, we strengthen our attention muscles, building resistance against distraction and mental lethargy. We wrestle with complicated plot lines, engage with multi-dimensional characters, and sit in hard moments that cannot be resolved with the swipe of a thumb. Such skills are crucial when studying Scripture. Ending the evening with a good story prepares us to wake up the next morning with our Bibles and encounter the greatest story of all.
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Stories Reignite Our Imagination
When good books collect dust on the shelves, we find that our imaginations go dormant as well. Days of dress-up and pretending have been replaced by breaking news alerts and to-do lists. But stories transport us to another place and allow us to see life through someone else’s eyes. When we meet a compelling character in a book, we are asked, as Harper Lee's Atticus Finch put it, to “climb into his skin and walk around in it.”4 This fresh dose of empathy and curiosity has far-reaching effects.
With renewed imaginations, we watch as the black and white pages of the Bible transform into technicolor. Its stories become something we don’t merely observe but inhabit. We stand at the edge of the Red Sea with the Israelites, hearing Pharoah’s battle cry behind us. We step into the throne room with Esther, trembling at the sight of the king’s scepter. We sit around a seaside fire with Peter and the risen Christ and feel the warmth of forgiveness firsthand. As we rediscover our sense of wonder, we remember that Jesus asked His followers to have the faith of children, those residents of Neverland and rulers of Narnia.
Well-Written Fiction Points Us to the Ultimate Storyteller
As we grow in our love for reading, we also begin to recognize the craftsmanship of great writers. The ability to weave ideas together into a beautiful narrative tapestry is a gift. Stewarded well, this art form points us to the greatest Author of all. From Genesis to Revelation, every book of the Bible is marked by the thick red thread of the gospel. Follow the thread, and it will lead you to the ultimate Storyteller.
Good stories take abstract ideas like love or justice and ground them in tangible characters set in a distinct time and place. No one knew this better than Jesus. Rather than give a lecture on forgiveness, Jesus wove a family saga in His third parable of Luke 15. His followers felt the heartache of a loving father, the anger of an older brother, and the tremulous journey home of a prodigal son. Lofty concepts of compassion and mercy took on the palpable form of a father bounding across the field to embrace his wayward child.
Stories last longer than bullet points.
Go get lost in a book this summer. Find something that leaves you saying, “Just one more chapter,” when it's time to turn out the lights. When the world around you feels too overwhelming to wrap your mind around, find a story you can wrap your hands around. After all, sometimes the path to understanding grand ideas—like the almighty power and tender kindness of God—goes through a wardrobe door to a lion who “isn't safe, but he's good.”5
Notes
1. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 64.
2. Horowitch, “The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books,” The Atlantic, October 1, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/.
3. Shaw, “To Foster Biblical Literacy, Teach People to Read,” The Gospel Coalition, November 19, 2025, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/biblical-literacy-teach-read/.
4. Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 36.
5. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 75.
Author Bio
Tracy Cooney lives in Conway, Arkansas, with her husband and three boys. She loves serving and writing for her local church. She can be found most days with a book in her hand.
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