My wife and I are diametrically opposed in our concept of traveling.  I prefer to set of in a general direction of a destination and am quite happy to just see what is to been seen.  I like to read the signposts, billboards, and advertisements as I go and let them provide hints where the next turn will be.  I get excited in finding new roads and even trails that I haven’t been on before.  If I have to sleep in the back of the Jeep, that’s just fine. Sometimes I would like just to go, take the nearest road and just explore.  It is a discovery, a grand adventure.  Never-the-less, my sweet wife would rather know in advance what the road is going to be like.  She needs to know what hotel we are going to be in.  She has to know what are the places we are going to visit.  Every restaurant must be checked out prior to even leaving the front step or turning on the car.

Most readers may also be divided into two types.  Some skip the introduction and by looking at the table of contents, jump to what has the most interest.  I was taught in sixth grade in a class on speed reading, to go to the last chapter and read it first just to see where it goes.  Others will start from the first word and dissect the introduction to ending.  Making sure nothing is missed.
Likewise, we go to church and some will just listen to the sermon expecting to learn something.  Others take notes and analyze it with all due diligence.

Both of these methods or mindsets are  nothing more than a preference of style.  In some areas one style may well be better than the other.  The issue is when the holders of preference do not allow for the preference of the other.  I teach a class on the Book of Romans.   We have been working through, making sure we do not miss something that God would have for the class.  We have had sixteen sessions so far and we have just entered the fifth chapter. This preferential methodology of study may not be for everyone.  I realize that some would rather have the notes and let it go at that.

For me it is the difference between hearing and understanding, between reading and study, between milk and meat.  The church needs deep things.  Every Christian needs to dig deeply into the Word of God.  The Bible is more than a tool for defining how we should live.  I does have great maxims of living a godly life, but if we are looking and reading just to find these guidelines, ruled, laws, suggestions, and even forbiddings, then we are missing the mark.  The Bible is for finding God.  The Bible is for feeding the soul.  The Bible is a revelation of a loving God.  As A.W. Tozer once said, “Our spiritual need is not the rock-lined pit for which a traveler longs, but the sweet, cool water that flows up from it. It is not intellectual knowledge about God that quenches man’s ancient hear-thirst, but the very Person and Presence of God Himself.”

Doesn’t really matter your method of traveling, it is about the destination, the direction and the why of the trip.