Materialism teaches that matter/energy alone is eternal, and everything that has ever existed is merely some conglomeration of matter or another. A man once wrote, “Meaningless! Meaningless! … Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless . . . I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless…Again I saw something meaningless under the sun… Everything to come is meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes). There is an unmistakable desperation in his cries. This man, with virtually limitless wealth and labor at his disposal, has searched interminably for meaning in the mere material universe, and he’s come up empty, time and time again. He just can’t make matter matter.
Matter Can’t Make Matter Matter – 01/2018
Mark Hanson – 12/2017
Anonymous Seasons – 12/2017
“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52 niv)
Wisdom that comes to us from others is one of God’s blessings—an example of the importance of community, of the church, of the family of man. Recently I read somewhere that “the hours often go slowly, but the years fly by.” That struck me as a wise saying.
Colleen, my wife, has often been a source of recommended readings for me; she should have been a librarian! This year she shared with me an amazing book—Anonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours, by Alicia Britt Chole. I highly recommend it. The basic premise is that we know little about the first thirty years (90%) of Jesus’ life. The Bible focuses on Jesus’ three years of public ministry; but His first thirty years were foundational. That quiet season of anonymity prepared Him for true greatness and made Him unshakable when His time came. Chole writes that when our potential is unseen and our abilities are unappreciated, when we are living in the gap between our dreams and life’s realities, we are in what she calls an “anonymous season of the soul.” She centers the book around Matthew’s account of Jesus’ forty days in the Judean wilderness and explains how she sees Jesus’ life up to that point preparing Him for His encounter with Satan.
One of many sentences that really grabbed my attention opens Chapter 18. “Time is not really spent. Instead, it is invested in a future we cannot see.” Reflecting on that thought and the whole book has helped me deal with “anonymous seasons” in my life, like the one right here and now. Colleen and I have a son who has numerous “disabilities,” or what one of Colleen’s special education professors called “differing abilities.” Ben is forty-two years old. He has not been able to complete schooling beyond high school nor hold a job. Ben lives in an apartment on our property, takes his meals with us, and is with us many of his waking hours. It is hard for him and us. We all wish Ben could have things in his life about which to feel good. He is angry at his situation and us much of the time. Colleen and I struggle to meet his needs and find opportunities for him. We rarely get off our place as a couple. That’s hard.
Anonymous said to me that perhaps Colleen, Ben, and I are in a season of preparation for things ahead. It rejuvenated my hope that God’s answer to our and friends’ and family members’ years of prayers for help will move from “not yet—wait—trust” to “yes.” Just after I finished the book this fall, we got word that Ben’s place on the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs waiting list for services had progressed from number 5381 in April 2014 to Number One. We are close to direct services for Ben and services that will meet some of our needs for respite care. Time invested praying, working and waiting has brought us closer to the future that we could not see. Not all is clear, nor will it all go smoothly, but hope lives on!
Steven L. Preston
Steven is a retired Library Director from Milligan College in Johnson City, Tennessee and former ACL president. He has been a member of ACL since 1986.
Nancy McGuire – 11/2017
Ambassador for Christ – 11/2017
This year the faculty of Grace University has been reading the book Marching off the Map: Inspire Students to Navigate a Brand New World, by Tim Elmore. The basic premise of the book is that faculty can’t effectively connect to the new students coming to us today using the same methods that were successful in the past. Mr. Elmore is suggesting that one must “think outside the box” in order to reach the technology savvy youth entering our campus doors. The book goes on to suggest new methods to use to effectively reach the minds of the next generation.
Ben Brick – 10/2017
God’s Love and a New Tribe – 10/2017
“The Love of God is Greater Far. . .” The sound of my students singing this song on the last day of the seminar still rings in my mind and heart. I was in Bujumbura, Burundi for three weeks this past summer to teach a library research seminar at Hope Africa University. The words of that song so encapsulated the blessing of those days.
Heather McCulley – 09/2017
Seasons – 09/2017
One can see God’s created order in the seasons and cycles of nature. After three summers in the hot climate in the California interior, I am figuring out the change of seasons, and that the times for planting and watering the rose bushes are very different from the North. Genesis 8:22 speaks of a natural order in God’s creation: “As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
