Many of us read spiritual books that confirm what we already suspect to be true.

That isn’t all bad. Knowledge flecks the mind like confetti; a book gathers the bits into a cohesive picture. That’s why reading can cause a Yes! to swell up within us — because someone, at last, has given language to the unspoken longings of our hearts.

The shadow side of this ​“reading what we already know” is that malformed views and theologies can be galvanized and emboldened. It feels good to have an expert validate my point of view or interpretation of Scripture.

One guard against this shadow side is to read books by followers of Jesus outside the circles we naturally gravitate toward. We need old books alongside the new, books by women and men, books by people who don’t look or think like we do.

We then read these books with prayerful humility and an openness to the Holy Spirit — ideally in conversation with other tenderhearted friends of Jesus.

Still, this kind of reading might make us squirm a little.

This excerpt, for example, from one of our past book club selections, The Cloud of Unknowing, makes me a little uncomfortable. Still, I appreciate how the writing — which has been affirmed by generations of Christians as valuable — shakes me out of my modern mindset and into a different realm of thinking and prayer. (One would expect nothing less from a book written by an anonymous 14^th-century contemplative.)

Discernment is needed in droves, of course. Would a book like The Cloud of Unknowing be good for every Christian? No. Do books beyond our comfort zones require contextual awareness and trusted guides to read profitably? Yes. Is it worth the effort? Absolutely.

On a related sidenote, this is why we set up the Renovaré Book Club as a nine-month, four-book journey: to encourage thoughtful reading beyond books we might normally choose. It’s striking how often, at the end of a season, Book Club members comment that it’s the book they were least looking forward to that ends up blessing them the most. Carolyn Arends calls this the ​“album effect.”

Once upon a time, when music was purchased on physical media, someone might buy an album for one song they heard on the radio. While listening to the album they would then discover the ​“deep cuts” — songs that take many listens to appreciate but long outlive the hit in the heart of the listener.

So whether you join the Book Club or not, I hope you’ll find ways to read ​“deep cuts” — books the Holy Spirit can use to shape your heart to look more like the heart of Jesus.