Why The Girl Who Loves Books Gave Hers Away

I got an award once in college and when giving some background information about me during the presentation, my friend, Travis, who was presenting the award, said something to the affect that "she's the kind of student who is more likely to spend her money on books than food."  He spoke rightly as I seem to have had an ongoing love affair with books ever since I was a young child, and if you've read this blog for any length of time you would know this because I feel like every other post involves a book somehow.

I was painfully shy as a child and I always dreaded riding the school bus because it was mostly with older students who intimidated me.  So I always had a book in my hands as a means of escape.  I remember several occasions when I would be so engrossed in a book that someone would be trying to talk to me and they would have to physically touch me in order for me to come back to reality.  I think some kids even wondered if I actually knew how to speak because I would never say anything to anyone, I was always reading.

Books upon books would line shelves in my room, all of them neatly ordered according to size.  Some people wonder how it's possible to read the same book over and over again and I say I have no problems with that.  In fact, I know I have several books that I've probably read at least half-a-dozen times.  Maybe there's a sense of comfort in that idea - I always know how the stories end.  It's predictable and safe.

I love how Cicero (although somehow I got it in my head this belonged to Chesteron) once said, "A room without books is like a body without a soul."  If that is true, then my room has plenty of soul.  I had gotten in this habit over the last couple of years of going to the local library every time they had a book sale.  I picked up many a gem for a dollar or less, but I also picked up books that I thought I would read some day.  Or sometimes I would just pick up a book or two that I thought would look good sitting on my shelf.  I've always had this vision in my head of some day having a library like the one in Beauty and the Beast (although you kinda have to have the house go to along with it, which is a pipe dream).  That is one of my very favorite scenes in the movie, when the Beast swings open the doors of his library and all you can see shelves upon shelves lined with books.  Makes me think of the Biblioteca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt.  Their Main Reading Hall has eleven cascading floors and can accommodate 2,000 readers at once.  Some day I'll go there.  And I'll probably cry when I see it.  Because I love libraries.  And I love books.

That kind of got turned on its head in recent weeks.  I picked up the book Radical by David Platt.  The subtitle is 'Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream."  I won't get into the specifics of the book because, quite frankly, that's an entirely separate post in and of itself.  But let's just say it's prompted some serious thought regarding what it means being a Christian in American culture.  Have we "Christianized" the American Dream?    And as I've been reading through this book and processing the implications, I always come back to the idea that this isn't something you just merely reflect on.  These aren't principles or concepts that we are meant to just lock away in our brain and say "that's a nice thought, maybe someday."  I really appreciated one of his quotes - it was somewhat of a punch in the gut for myself, one I would probably rather ignore - but nevertheless, know I need to hear.  He said:

We are giving into the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with.  A nice, middle-class, American Jesus.  A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have.  A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection.  A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are.  A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger all together.  A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as live out our Christian spin on the American dream.

And as I was reading, he gave an anecdote or two about how people in his church were selling their homes and giving the money away.  He spoke of how families were opening their doors to foster children all across the county.  He spoke of how people were selling their possessions and using the money to go buy groceries for people in the projects.

I don't say all this to point out how we're failing in the American church or as American Christians. (Please read the book to get a full understanding of what he's getting at as I know that I'm only presenting snippets here.) But I can't ignore what the Bible says. 

So, I thought to myself one day while thinking about the book and the Bible, "What do I have to give away?  What are the things in my life that I need to start sacrificing?  The things I need to freely and joyfully give away - not because I have to or because I'm on some kind of guilt trip after reading this book, but because there is a desperate and hurting world out there and I can do something about it?  And not just things - but time, talent, abilities, knowledge?"

I decided I have books, lots of them.  How can I take my books and use them to extend the glory of God and make much of Him?  So, I went through and cleaned out my collection and I wound up with about 150 books I'm parting with, 150 books I promised I'd never get rid of.  There are still quite a few that I kept but that's still a hefty portion of what I have.

I'm still figuring out where to go from here with them.  I've thought about registering each of them on http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and then just leaving them in random places for people to pick up and enjoy.  I've thought about selling them all and using the money to give away to someone who really needs it, maybe to buy their groceries or help pay their heating bill.  (Although my original idea of selling them to Half Price Books led to a dead-end when I took 37 books in yesterday and only got SEVEN dollars in return for them.  I'd rather just give them away.) I've thought about donating them all to the local library so someone else can have the pleasure of enjoying them.

The point is that I looked at what I had - books and otherwise - and asked, "To what end?  To what end do I have all these things?  And how can I be obedient to what I'm reading in the Gospels, to not just pay lip service to a body of doctrine but to actually live out what I'm reading?"  I don't have all the answers, if anything, Radical has just caused me to ask more questions.  But I figure I have to start somewhere.  I'm not going to change the world overnight and my own life isn't going to change overnight, but I have to start somewhere.

So I'll start with books.  

*2/7/11 Update - still contemplating how to dispense of my books. If you have ideas, let me know! Would love to find a worthy place to donate, if nothing else.*