Spoiler Alert!
As most of you know, I have several addictions in life, some of which I am proud and some of which I am sure are fairly unhealthy.
Some of my unhealthy and addictive habits might be but are certainly not limited to….
How many times in one lifetime can a woman tell herself that chocolate is NOT a daily vitamin?!!
If there were an Olympic sport in hitting the snooze button on the morning alarm clock – I would win it. Hands down.
And don’t even get me started on Target and please don’t ask my husband about that particular drug of choice.
But … now … as I have already stated … not all of my addictions are harmful – some are very healthy, indeed!
Let me share with you one of my healthy addictions -
A singular addiction that has me under lock and key since about the second grade has also benefitted me in ways too numerous to even count.
I am a self-diagnosed, avaricious read-aholic!
In my book - there is no such thing as owning too many books.
Many days of my life I would rather read than breathe … rather read than eat … rather read that talk.
“What is a bookshelf other than a treasure chest for a curious mind?”
Whenever I walk into a bookstore or a library, my blood pressure rises, my heartbeat accelerates and I have to remind myself to “Breathe in … breathe out … breathe in … breathe out!
I am the kind of girl who fantasizes about being locked up in the library overnight!
The books that I have read over the course of my life have helped to mold the person that I am today. I have traveled through time and have met fascinating people on the pages of a book that I otherwise never would have known.
I have climbed mountains, survived blizzards, experienced poverty, dealt with difficult people, and lived on other continents simply because I opened the pages of a book.
I have been the President of the United States of America … the Queen of England … a housewife during the Dustbowl … and a missionary who gives her life for the cause of Christ … simply because I have opened the pages of a book.
“One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change our lives.”
Because I am so very human, I have even developed a frighteningly bad habit right in the middle of this excellent obsession with reading. Actually, let me attempt to re-describe the questionable habit that thrives in the midst of a stellar habit -
To me – this particular practice of which I speak is actually not a bad habit at all but a dire necessity to my emotional investment.
However, most of my friends say it is simply a bad habit. A very bad habit.
“What is the habit of controversy?” you may ask.
I am so glad that you asked because I can’t wait to answer you fully!
Whenever I pick up a book – fiction or non-fiction – before I read the first chapter, I always read the last chapter.
That’s not a sin, is it?!
The reason that I do this is because I refuse to give myself wholeheartedly to a book that has a murky ending. I refuse to read a page of a book that comes to erroneous conclusions or communicates that which I consider to be a broken theme.
I refuse.
Other well-meaning bibliophiles may accuse me of spoiling the ending but I think not. Knowing the ending before the beginning actually stirs my interest in and investment to the book. It is true, this habit removes both fear and suspense from my emotional thermometer – but who needs fear and suspense anyway?!
I love the development of the characters to a deeper and richer degree knowing how it is all going to turn out for them. I feel that I own a sweet secret that I am unable to share with anyone whose life story is being written before my very eyes.
And so I trudge along through my well-set pattern of literary perusal and continue to read the last chapter first.
One particular day, as I was reading the greatest Book ever written, I realized how powerful it is to know exactly what the end of the Bible says! My heart leaped for absolute joy out of my chest as I embraced the knowledge that I know!
I know how all of this ends for the people of God!
I know how God will tie it all together!
I know what the final act will look like!
I know who wins!
And I definitely know who loses!
I don’t mean to spoil the ending of the Bible for you … but everything really is going to be o.k.
Go ahead! I dare you to do it! Read the last chapter of Revelation and break out in exuberant worship!
God has written the end of your story and it’s a good one … a really good one!
There is no reason for fear or suspense in the life of a believer because the ending to all of our stories is simply out of this world!
God has been to your future and it is good because He is good and He is already there.
God has spent eternity past writing out the details of your life and has made an eternal investment in the ending that will trump all other endings … you win because He has already won!
“Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them.” – Psalm 139:16
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!