Why Rick?

Today I went to one of my favorite places to waste time- Half Price Books in Apple Valley. I love not only perusing the religion section, but also scouring the clearance CD rack and rare and 1st edition collection…. It’s just a lovely place to spend an hour. Today I remained restrained in that I only bought 4 or 5 books. Among them was a NCV Study Bible with commentaries and devotional thoughts by Max Lucado. If you were to read my work and then read Max’s, you’d see how profoundly he has influenced me. At only $8 I thought a Max Lucado Study Bible would be a nice addition to the ‘ole library.

SIDE BAR: I had 4 or 5 books- including Chapman’s “5 Love Languages for the Single Person”, which was intriguing if only to give a ministry perspective- I really like the original 5 Languages, so I figured what the heck, might as well check out the single version. The thing is, though, when you buy any sort of book about being single you open yourself up to all sorts of scrutiny by the employee at the cash register. I think that would be a fun job to have- I would totally judge every person’s book choices… (I just played out all sorts of hilarious scenarios of books and judgments in my head… ha!) SO here I am with the book that screams lonely plus some heady work by Henry Nouwen, a youth ministry book, and the Lucado Bible. The person behind the counter is very attractive with a very pleasant smile. She grabs the Chapman book first which I kind of shiver over, I was hoping she’d just skip past it quick… but she kind of goes through my choices and says, “you have some good stuff here- I read that Chapman book and really enjoyed it” I kind of smiled shocked and embarrassed at the same time. Then she grabs the Lucado Bible and was like, “wow this looks really great!” I was just taken aback at her genuine interest in my purchases… but I couldn’t get any words out… I finally sort of loudly mumbled, “I love Lucado, so…. Heh heh…” smooth…. She smiled kindly and said, “Me too! Everyone does! Well… everyone should… you know?” I was totally out of my element. If I didn’t know any better I would say she was flirting with me. I just totally froze. All I could say was, “for sure.” And then I turned around and walked out of the store. I really have little else to say about the whole episode… other than MAN I am awkward….

Anyway, so I have this Lucado Bible and it does look really cool. But there’s something about it that makes me very sad. You see this Bible is like new. The binding is unbroken, pages crisp and clean- it even has a new smell even though its over a decade old. The saddest part is on the first page this is written:
Presented to
Rick Meyers
by
Ruth and Maynard Mahler
on the day of your Baptism
12 October, 1997

I would think that this was an adult baptism… I can’t imagine giving a baby a Bible… I can’t help but wonder what happened. I mean I don’t care how hard up you are for money, if you’re a Christian, you don’t sell a Bible to a used book store, especially not one from Ruth and Maynard. It was given to him on his baptism, so it is conceivable that it was his first Study Bible (like the CPH Study Bible I received on my confirmation), so certainly you wouldn’t sell that if you were still a believer, right? As far as I can tell one of two things happened. Either Rick was called home to eternity or he is no longer a believer in Jesus. NOT ONLY does he not believe in Jesus, but he has such distain for Him that he would rather have $2 from Half Price Book than allow His Word to sit on his shelves. It breaks my heart. Why didn’t you stay in the faith, Rick? What went wrong? What didn’t click? Why didn’t you break the Bible in? Why didn’t you dirty its pages and pour over its truths? You make me sad, Rick, because I work with dozens of kids that could end up just like you. What do we have to do to keep the Rick’s of our church in the pews, and more importantly in the Word? What makes someone discard a Bible as easily as any other paperback that is no longer wanted? What do Ruth and Maynard think about it? So many questions…
Perhaps I’m making too much of this, but it is sad nonetheless…