295. Discipleship and Dyslexia

So the British Dyslexia Association says that one in 10 people are dyslexic.

That's 3.7 million people, uh, would be dyslexic.

Now, my experience has been that within the church, I think it's much higher than that.

I think that within my staff teams over the years, it's been a higher percentage than that, and within our congregation, I would say it's, it's more than that.

So I don't know where they get the number from, but they say about 6.7 million people have dyslexia, and I constantly get the same comment from people when I say I'm dyslexic.

Now, why do I say I'm dyslexic? Is it because I'm looking for people to feel sorry for me? The answer is not at all.

I realized a number of years ago that if I didn't say that I'm dyslexic, um, it didn't give permission for others who are thinking about, "Am I dyslexic?" Or you have children who are dyslexic to say, "Hang on.

Us too.

Like, we're experiencing that." And the number of times I've talked about it, I will usually get some, uh, person or two, three people at the end of a talk that might come up to me and say, "Actually, I think I might be as well.

What do I do?" So I talk about it because I just think it's really helpful for others to go, "Well, then maybe that, that, that's me." So 1.7 million people in the UK, uh, the Dyslexia Association, they, are, are dyslexic.

It, it might be more than that.

So let me just explain to you, um, about my dyslexia.

So, uh, number one, uh, I, you know, said it beforehand, um, if I'm trying to write something down, my brain can't keep up, and by the end of the sentence, I don't know kind of w- where I'm heading.

Um, when I read text, so if you open a book, what I don't see is a page full of words.

What I see is just a block of gray text, uh, blurred.

Um, it's, it's, it's not clear.

It's just, it's like a shape on the page rather than words.

And then what I'm able to do is I can focus on a word So I can focus on a word at the beginning of a sentence, and what I'm able to do is probably see the word after it and the word before it, uh, but that's about it.

And what I have to do when I read is I'm basically reading each word, and as I read the next word, the next-- the word along from it is kinda starting to reveal itself.

So I don't read a sentence, I, I read words.

Single word, single word, single word, single word.

So what we found at school was, uh, people would often say my reading was quite stunted 'cause I was reading a word then a word.

So I w-wasn't allowing a sentence to flow.

I was-- 'cause I was doing this kind of individual words.

I've, I've learnt how to navigate that by reading ahead, so I will often start by, by reading ahead.

So the British Dyslexia Association says that one in 10 people are dyslexic.

That's 3.7 million people, uh, would be dyslexic.

Now, my experience has been that within the church, I think it's much higher than that.

I think that within my staff teams over the years, it's been a higher percentage than that, and within our congregation, I would say it's, it's more than that.

So I don't know where they get the number from, but they say about 6.7 million people have dyslexia, and I constantly get the same comment from people when I say I'm dyslexic.

Now, why do I say I'm dyslexic? Is it because I'm looking for people to feel sorry for me? The answer is not at all.

I realized a number of years ago that if I didn't say that I'm dyslexic, um, it didn't give permission for others who are thinking about, "Am I dyslexic?" Or you have children who are dyslexic to say, "Hang on.

Us too.

Like, we're experiencing that." And the number of times I've talked about it, I will usually get some, uh, person or two, three people at the end of a talk that might come up to me and say, "Actually, I think I might be as well.

What do I do?" So I talk about it because I just think it's really helpful for others to go, "Well, then maybe that, that, that's me." So 1.7 million people in the UK, uh, the Dyslexia Association, they, are, are dyslexic.

It, it might be more than that.

So let me just explain to you, um, about my dyslexia.

So, uh, number one, uh, I, you know, said it beforehand, um, if I'm trying to write something down, my brain can't keep up, and by the end of the sentence, I don't know kind of w- where I'm heading.

Um, when I read text, so if you open a book, what I don't see is a page full of words.

What I see is just a block of gray text, uh, blurred.

Um, it's, it's, it's not clear.

It's just, it's like a shape on the page rather than words.

And then what I'm able to do is I can focus on a word So I can focus on a word at the beginning of a sentence, and what I'm able to do is probably see the word after it and the word before it, uh, but that's about it.

And what I have to do when I read is I'm basically reading each word, and as I read the next word, the next-- the word along from it is kinda starting to reveal itself.

So I don't read a sentence, I, I read words.

Single word, single word, single word, single word.

So what we found at school was, uh, people would often say my reading was quite stunted 'cause I was reading a word then a word.

So I w-wasn't allowing a sentence to flow.

I was-- 'cause I was doing this kind of individual words.

I've, I've learnt how to navigate that by reading ahead, so I will often start by, by reading ahead.