 I’ve really needed to downsize my library for a long time. My offices have gotten larger and provided more shelf space over the years, and I have continued to overfill the extra space they’ve offered. It’s not that I don’t like lots of books around, I do, more than almost anything. I’d give up my desk, my computer, my chairs – anything but my tunes, before I’d give up my books. But at some point you have to ensure yourself enough floor space to get from one shelf to another, and so you have to do some pruning. This shouldn’t be difficult. I have duplicate copies, redundant resources, and extraneous volumes. But like the man in Wanda Gag’s wonderful picture book Millions of Cats (which I have in hardcover and soft cover), I couldn’t bring myself to part with one – until I realized I could drastically reduce the size of my library by buying books. |
When we were nationally hunkering down, awaiting the wrath of Rita, our friends at the local filling stations took the calm time before the storm to get a head start on raising gas prices. With refineries off line and shortages a possibility, we are chastened that none (or few) of us have taken finding a cheap, renewable energy source seriously for the last 30 years. I’ve been working on a renewable energy source for as long as I remember. Not an energy source for automobiles, mind you, but for people. Garrison Keillor says that Powdermilk Biscuits give “shy people the ability to get up and do what needs to be done”. But what about lazy people? Mischievous people? People who can’t reduce their libraries? Some of us seem to be naturally good, but for some others (like myself) being good is hard work. And so I’ve had to find creative ways to get myself to do the right thing, otherwise I just don’t have the energy. For instance, I have a great lack of restraint. Left to my inclinations, I’d live according to the credo “Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess”. This is not good, because the Lord tells us “Let your moderation be known to all men” (Philippians 4.5). I am also a great worrier (this is condemned in the very next verse, Phil 4.6). I find that it is much easier to set my worry at odds with my excessive nature, than to show any real restraint. Modulating two negative impulses takes less energy than generating one positive one. I do the same thing with my laziness and my impatience.
The Lord says in Genesis 3 that work is a curse. By definition, then, anything you enjoy is not work. Each of us, though, is faced daily with tasks we must do, and that we don’t enjoy. I find that if I open the tap on my impatience I can get a distasteful job done well (enough) and on time.
This all seems (at least to me) do-able. Our negative impulses are so much more energized than our positive ones. If anyone is the Energizer Bunny, it is the Devil. Why not harness the power of all that badness for good, and in the process cheat the old serpent out of getting us to do something wrong? Well, because, badness is not just what we do, but why we do it. Goodness is organic, it comes from the inside out (Matthew 15.16-20). Besides, you can’t serve two masters (Matthew 6.24), you can’t yield to the good and to the bad at the same time (Romans 6.12-17). Negative energy is negative, and while you might manipulate it a little, and stay out of more trouble than otherwise, it still leaves you lazy, worried, impatient, and a mess.
Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit. Without me you can do nothing,” (John 15.5). Generating my own good impulses will wear me out – it is a job too large for me, and it isn’t my job anyway. My task is to stay connected to Jesus – to know him, love him, think about him, let him love me, and do what he wants because of that knowledge and love. The energy that results is positive, and inexhaustible.
