Books, books, books...

I spent this afternoon cleaning and organizing some bookshelves in the worship room at the meetinghouse with some Friends. The result is a neater space, the beginnings of an accessible library, and a realization that we own some of the very books on my "to read" list.

We also had a large pile of Bibles in the meetinghouse, most in pretty poor condition, and probably needing to be disposed of. We saved a few copies of the newer ones, and promptly stored them on a high shelf behind a closed door that might be very noisy if one wanted to open it during meeting for worship, perhaps, let's say, to access one of those Bibles.

I was back there this evening, and as I sat quietly I was overcome by a certain sadness. I tend to end up in that worship room many a morning, and as often as not I tend to grab a pile from the stack-of-bibles-that-used-to-be-there. I instinctively looked at the empty shelf where they used to be, and wasn't sure what to think. I remembered back to this month's query, which had just been read yesterday in this very room:


Spiritual Life
Do you live in thankful awareness of God's constant presence in your life?
Are you sensitive and obedient to leadings of the Holy Spirit?
Do you seek to follow Jesus, who shows us the way?
Do you nurture your spiritual life with prayer and silent waiting and with regular study of the Bible and other devotional literature?

I'm not one to get really picky with these queries, I see them as point for deeper reflection - in fact, I must admit I might not often even remember them specifically the next day. And yet this one stuck with me - the Bible/Jesus parts. I'm just not sure how to process all of this. I'm sure this nagging feeling must mean something - perhaps I'll figure it out tomorrow in filling up the space where the Bibles used to be?

Update: Hey hey hey - Brent Bill's thinking about Bibles too over on his (fantastic) blog - and this post just popped over to me as I was finishing mine. YAY.