I have a stack of books by my favorite chair in our home. I’m reading all of them at once—sort of. The pages are filled with poetry, music history, fictional characters and stories, theology, leadership, magazines, journals, and whatever else lands on the pile. I dip in a little here and there, depending on my mood and attention span. It is a delight to be able to slide back into a story with characters I already know or dive into new material that expands my mind.
I also have a stack on my desk at church, too, well…maybe several stacks. There are books I’m using for preparing book and Bible studies, commentaries for sermon reflection, biographies and memoirs, graphic novels, as well as authors writing about leadership, discipleship, best ministry practices, stewardship, and more.
I haven’t read all of these volumes and may not ever get to some of them, but it is the possibility of encountering people, places, and stories in these pages that brings me joy. It is comforting to have my tsundoku—a Japanese word for a stack of books that you have purchased but not yet read—close at hand.
Kevin Mims, writing about this unread heap, offers, “A person’s library is often a symbolic representation of his or her mind…The [person] with an ever-expanding library understands the importance of remaining curious, open to new ideas, and voices” (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/books/review/personal-libraries.html).
One of my goals for our seminary interns is to encourage them to be lifelong learners. Even though their divinity school coursework might be wrapping up, that doesn’t mean that their learning is complete—quite the opposite! A steady diet of both fiction and nonfiction are essential in helping one grow in knowledge and understanding, while also stretching one’s ability to think, dream, and grow a vocabulary.
This applies to our journey with Jesus, too. We should be curious disciples, eager to spend a lifetime stockpiling language and stories that lead us deeper into loving relationships with God and those around us. Our faith journey doesn’t end with singing “Jesus Loves Me” in Sunday School, reciting a few Bible verses, and memorizing the Lord’s Prayer. While these are good to have in your spiritual library, God offers so much more material to help us grow in faith, hope, and love.
This year, we are going to sink deeply into these three words: faith, hope, and love. We’ll wrestle with how they’ve been used to manipulate and control, and celebrate the ways they have offered liberation and freedom. We’ll place them front and center as we strive to live, share and celebrate with all people, God’s love in Jesus Christ. Faith, hope, and love will anchor our times together in worship, learning, serving, prayer, and discernment.
Sometimes, we become so accustomed to hearing, saying, and using these churchy words, we forget the transformational, otherworldly power that they hold. Collectively, these three building blocks of a Christian life show up more than one thousand times in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that all kinds of things come and go throughout our lives, but when everything else fades away, “faith, hope, and love remain” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
So let’s pull these off of the shelf and explore where God might be leading us. Join me in savoring the incredible story of a love that will not let us go. Let’s see how faith, hope, and love might direct our days and deeds as we follow Jesus into the great unknown. Hopefully, we’ll learn something new about ourselves, our neighbors, God, and the world at every turn.
Learning and loving,
Pastor Lowell Michelson