From Powell’s To The Prophet

A couple extra hours before a scheduled flight allowed Mary and me to visit Powell’s Bookstore a fabled Portland landmark. The façade of the store was unimpressive, but once inside, my skepticism vanished as we engaged in an unforgettable shopping experience.

Mary wandered to the Rose Room for Children’s Books, while I disappeared into the Red Room where books on Theology, Philosophy and Christian Doctrine dominate the shelves.

The room held a collection of wildly divergent perspectives on faith. In the sixty minutes I wandered the bookstore’s aisles, I saw the human soul laid out in print and was reminded how the human will leans toward self reliance and arrogant independence. From the Garden of Eden, to boardrooms, to the blight of urban neighborhoods, the enticement is the same...To think of only ourselves. ME first.

In reading the Old Testament prophet Micah, it’s almost as though he had walked the aisles of Powell’s bookstore before I did; he wrote: “For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.” ~ Micah 4:5 (ESV)

His words resonate in twenty ­first century life. How culturally appropriate. “If it works for you... that’s great; I’m happy for you.”

But truth is just that...truth. It divides even as it unites. It flushes out the phony and exposes the counterfeit.

The prophet Micah nailed it again: “You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.” ~ Micah 6:14­15 (ESV)

The truth aligns our soul with the things of God. It liberates us, it satisfies us, it nourishes us and it exposes the darkness for what it is.

From Micah’s pen to the aisles of Powell’s bookstore, a battle rages for the souls of mankind. “... but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.”

May we walk in His timeless truth.