daily java

Daily Java: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Not too long ago, I began the process of downscaling. The spellcheck in the MS Word program liked the word downscale so I suppose that is what it is called.

I decided four or five years ago that I was going to get rid of things I did not need. The main target of my energies would be my library.

I have always had an extensive library, at times reaching almost a thousand books. It has gotten in the past to where I needed an extra trailer to carry them all when I moved. In my office, I have always been forced to add extra shelves to accommodate them all. They have, at times, been a source of pride. Look how smart I am, with all these books. Preachers love their books.

It is not that I haven’t used them, but their presence always soothed me, made me feel more the scholar. People would come in and exclaim over the volumes. Did you read all these books, they would ask. No, I would reply modestly, but I have read from all of them.

And I did. And they were useful. But lately (the last ten years or so) I have begun to notice that they were almost more of a hindrance than a help. There were just so many.

On top of all that, I had come to the point that they were part of my life definition. I loved to rearrange them and look at them, to pick one up and read a bit, to move them around. When it came time to move (as we did frequently, coming from a denomination that did not value longevity in a preacher), I could pack them in a couple of hours. They were rapidly becoming an idol.

It took longer to unpack them, but that was because I lovingly arranged them along with all of the toys, tschotskes, stuff that were on the shelf with them. The attendant stuff took up a few boxes themselves. All in all, my library took up over 20 boxes. I preferred banana boxes for their strength.

A fat lot of stuff that for the most part, looked backward.

The writer of Ecclesiastes said, The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails – given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. (12:11-12)

Finally one day, that came home to me. We were living in a temporary house while I was undergoing credentialing process in the Assemblies of God and one room was full of boxes. Many of them were books. I had been going to the internet more and more for my study materials. I decided that these were something I could live without.

Ella and I cataloged them and priced them on a sheet which I took to the Bible department of a nearby Christian college. Like I would have done when I was in a Bible department, they fell on the list like wolves. I sold the whole lot to a young graduate student. I got far less than they were worth, but his obvious pleasure and – this was the kicker – he said he was going to send parts of the collection to missionaries. Sucker that I am, I practically gave him the library.

Over 30 years of accumulated books gone in thirty minutes.

I kept a few, less than 200, three shelves full, things like my Hebrew and Greek stuff. Some of the stuff I kept is kind of odd really. I had already given away many of my toys, swords, knick knacks – things that people expressed an interest in. If I thought they would like it, I gave it to them.

In general, I got rid of too much. It was almost wrenching. There were some books I was a fool to get rid of. But at the same time, liberating. It got my library down to four or five boxes, toys and all.

Sooner or later you move away from the old and you embrace the new. You press on to the prize. In my case, the prize was getting rid of everything before I die.

The only problem is that other stuff comes in to take its place. I am not sure why, but it is true. I suppose that the world sees me as a collector, so I collect.

I would like to give everything away before I die, though. I won’t need it where I am going.