Culling Through Books

Back in 2008, I preached myself under conviction regarding the abundance of my possessions.  It was a Lenten series that did me in.  My response was to determine to reduce everything that I (personally) owned by one-half!  [I didn't try to mess with things that Deb and I owned together - I know my limits!]

I started with pants, shirts, socks, shoes, belts and other clothing items.  This area wasn't too hard for me. Then I went to the garage.  That was another story.  I felt the pain of parting with tools that I might someday need!  I legalistically proceeded through every category of my life and strictly enforced my 50% rule!

My greatest struggles came with books!  They're the tools of my trade.  But, I was persistent.  Some folks from New Middletown may remember that I set up long tables in the fellowship hall and gave them an opportunity to grab books before I hauled them to the Goodwill Store.  I ran into another wall of opposition when I came across a couple of boxes of old record albums.  I was tempted to fudge, but resisted the temptation!

Then, in 2012, the Spirit opened doors for us to go to China - much to our surprise!  Here we go again!  We rented a 10' by 20' storage unit and decided that it would have to hold our precious items until our return. This meant a massive reduction of 'stuff'!  At the time, we lived in a four-bedroom, tri-level parsonage;  and we had it packed.  So many things had to go:  pool table, table saw, lawn mower, living room furniture, Haire-loom dining room set, antiques, Christmas decorations, old files, etc., etc..  It took weeks for us to go through everything and kept us busy until the day we left town!

All this is a prelude to my culling through my books again.  Kittanning Free Methodist is having its bi-annual yard sale and I figured it was a good way to dispose of a lot of my books.  Other pastors will understand how challenging this is.  When people see the extensiveness of my library (which is half what it was before 2008), they often ask, "Have you read all of these books?"  The answer:  "Most of them!"  And most of them bear evidence that they've been read;  underlined passages, marginal comments and final page notes.

As I browse through books today, I'm creating two piles:  one to share with fellow pastors at an upcoming meeting, and another to give to the yard sale.

It's those final note pages that have me concerned!  It has been my custom through the years to write my personal opinions on the final page.  I will reveal how much I liked (disliked) or benefitted from the book.  I will indicate how it impacted me and if I made any changes as a result of reading it.  I'm tempted to tear some of these out before I release them into someone else's hands...

Here's an example:   [From the last page of Breaking the Discipleship Code]

Finished 5/21/08.  Read it in three days.  Pretty much straight through.

Good but not great.  It was a fast read.

The essentials were valuable to grasp.  I definitely need to be a missional follower of Christ.

At present I am not - nor have I ever been.  The church has spoiled me.

I literally wonder if the church can be redeemed.  

It feels, to me, that it is desperately entrenched in institutionalization and traditionalism.

I feel like the only way to be a missional follower of  Christ would be to leave the church as I know it!

Other final page notes have even stronger confessional elements.  Do I really want my private evaluations and thoughts to be read by others?  Maybe even printed in their blogs?  

Anyway, if you pick up a used book someday and find the last page ripped out, there's a strong possibility that it used to belong to me!  :-)