The secret of the Kingdom in throw-away books

A few years back I read a book by Gerald Mays titled Addiction and Grace. Mays lists his 13 or 14 addictions that he's identified in his life. I began to identify mine...I think I had 17 or so that might qualify: a few being caffeine, sugar, carbs in general, a tendency toward workaholism, etc. I don't know if books would qualify as an addiction, but I really love books and have a hard time passing them up.

I had to run into the Dollar Tree yesterday, and even though my mission wasn't to buy a book, I always take a quick glance in the book section to see what unlucky author has landed his/her books on the shelf of a $1 store rather than the NY Times Bestseller List. One never knows if I might find an unexpected treasure amongst the titles. There on the bottom shelf, was a row of Bibles. I think they've always been there when I've looked , but it just struck me yesterday. Amidst cheap crosswords and word finds, poorly written children's books, a few biographies and how-to books, was the most powerful book in the world...relegated to the bottom shelf of the dollar store.

I was reminded of it again, today, as I walked with my daughter into one of our most favorite places to visit...the public library. On the way in, there was a book cart with a sign that said "Free Books". Though it looked picked over, I stopped (okay, it probably qualifies for addiction) to glance through the titles left. Of the maybe 30 books on the cart, I found about 15 Christian books, some of the titles being:

Servant Leadership
Suffering
Christian Caregiving: A Way of Life
Honest Prayer
Christians and the Art of Caring
Who is this Jesus?

I was thinking about how these books were sitting there free for the taking and seemingly not moving off the cart in much of a hurry. I was thinking about how even Christians might not like to engage themselves in many of these titles. More and more, I'm convinced of the upside-down kingdom of Jesus...the power of God found in the way of compassion and suffering, servanthood and sacrifice...the way of Jesus. I'm pretty sure that the more I stretch myself in these disciplines, the more my faith will have a chance to break out from my comfortable and cultural experience and grow.

Did I pick up those books? You bet I did. For me, the real task won't be the discipline to read them. The real task will be to move past word into deed.