Reading List

I have a prodigious reading list in front of me after Randy Harris' sermon at the end of our Renew Conference on Sunday. That man can READ! He has a goal to read 20,000 pages this year, in a variety of disciplines and interests. And, yes, I feel like a slouch, using the recumbent bike at the gym so I can find a way to read my 250-page book for my reading group and still get some movement in my life!

So what does Randy Harris do with all those books he reads? He tells interesting stories, gives really clear examples, and just looks smart. As he told the story of his librarian seducing him years ago, I listened more closely to this man who is the closest thing the Church of Christ has to a monk--a man over 50 who has chosen to remain single so he can devote his entire life and energy to ministry and teaching ensuing generations of theologians, preachers and teachers.

His version of seduction was a librarian with keen powers of observation, who studied Randy's tastes in literature, then suggested other works of fiction that would "scratch that same itch" in his literary life. As he rattled off the name of one great book after another she offered him, I scribbled frantically, trying to get them all down:
Turn The Screw by Henry James; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde; The Lord of the Flies by William Golding; The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Doystoyevsky.... Some reside on my bookshelf read or half-read, others have never been in my home.

So, what was the point of this seductive librarian story? It's this: We Christians have the same great opportunity to observe the ways of others around us, then offer them something from the treasure chest of God's Word that will "scratch the same itch" they are attempting to scratch in other ways.

Jesus described it this way: "Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old." Matthew 13:52 (New American Standard Version)

Whether it is a Sunday School story we heard as children or an insight we just received five minutes ago, we have a treasury of God's gifts to offer other people who are looking for love, significance, meaning, joy, happiness, peace or a whole backpack of other things.

But, tell the truth when you offer those treasures, Randy reminded us. The librarian didn't tell him he could read The Brothers Karamazov in one day, and we should not promise people lives free from the same diseases, accidents and disappointments that happen to all human beings. The treasure of the gospel message comes not from escaping hardship, but from knowing the God who will never leave us alone in our pain.

And now, I'd better go crack a book....

--Posted by Mama O.