Dyslexia

Some time ago,  a fellow (one of the most skillful auto mechanics I’ve ever met) told me he was reading the Bible every day, but was having trouble understanding what he read.  I asked what version of the Bible he was trying to read.  He said, “The New Revised Standard.”  I suggested he might try others, like Eugene Peterson’s The Message.  He knew of The Message and had tried reading it, but still couldn’t get hold of what he was reading.  He reads the devotional, “Daily Bread,” and often has difficulty comprehending those readings as well.  He went on to say that he has never been able to memorize Bible verses like other people in his church  seemed to do so easily.  In fact, he finally confessed, he has had problems reading and comprehending anything, from the newspaper to the Bible!

This skilled mechanic is but one of thousands, of all ages, all over the world, who struggle with this issue of reading and comprehension.  While he is extremely intelligent, he probably has a reading disorder of one kind or another.  Perhaps he is dyslexic?   Dyslexia affects nearly 7% of our population here in the United States.  For twenty-five-plus  I tutored dyslexic youth and I know from that experience how difficult it is for them to read.  I cringe when I hear dyslexic jokes.  This frustrating disorder in no laughing matter.  By the way, here are some famous people who are reported to have had the gift of dyslexia: Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and even Jay Leno, 

How long does it take you to decipher what this paragraph says? That's what a dyslexic person deals with every single time they try to read.