The Good Book

2/21/09 His Word
K-Love radio chat yesterday discussed unusual words and "bibliophobia" (a fear of running out of books to read) was one of them. I on the other hand tend more toward the “so many books so little time” philosophy. However, the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us of the futility of this and issues a warning: “the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.” Sometimes too much of anything ---even pleasure---can be overwhelming and take it’s toll. So in the reading area, I need to choose carefully---and except for my devotional journal, My Utmost for His Highest, I rarely ever read a book twice. (Wonder if Jesus Calling will be added to that list?) In years past, (each January) when I thought I had some semblance of control/order in my life, I would read, Disciplines of a Beautiful Woman by Anne Ortlund and Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s, Gift From the Sea ----sort of a resolution to “do better” ritual. Both were small books so I could read them before returning to teaching. Both were also gifts from college chums who were Pi Phi sorority sisters as well. I had forgotten that part until I went searching my bookshelf, after typing the above remembrance, and saw the inscription. Maureen has since died but Molly’s driving over from Blytheville next week for a lunch/visit.

I searched b/c didn’t want to highlight books that I haven’t read in awhile, plus, I wanted to revisit the “draw” of those two particular books. Maybe the “draw” was that the both writings gave inspiration to a “growing Christian” who as a wife, mother of three and a working woman, wanted to “do it” right. The Ortlund book was easy reading and easily became a checklist for a “works mentality” kind of gal----the hubby/family, the schedule, the clothes and the spiritual life as well. The somewhat splattered copy of “Gift…” included marginalia and it was easy to reread some key passages. It might have been written in the 50s but it sounded a lot like today’s world. Her writing is gentle and reads like poetry and it was easy to be drawn to the passages that “spoke” to me almost 30 years ago----though AML’s own life was not “perfect” by any means.

On p. 23, Lindbergh states, "I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God." A couple of pages later she adds, "What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives. It puts the trapeze artist to shame."

I would have to reread it all closely to see how it aligns with scripture but there are certainly some statements that ring true that I had underlined.
Underlinings from Gift from the Sea:
• They (other women) manage….. far better than I, it seemed to me, looking at their lives from the outside. (My marginalia—never compare your insides with someone’s else’s outsides----that’s an adage I often share)
• Woman---the eternal nourisher of society----gives & gives….sometimes spilling away in driblets….seldom being allowed the time, the quiet, the peace, to …..fill up to the brim.
• A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of sky. A note in music gains significance from the silence on either side.
• Perhaps we never appreciate the here and now until it is challenged.

With those thoughts--I’m okay with the fact that I am desiring lots of quiet interludes and am seeking times of silence and solitude lately. But….as I’m choosing to be still and know that He is Lord, I want to be filled to the brim with more of Him. With that in mind, I want to open the one Book that I choose above all others because, Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119:105)