Packing Up

My Heaving Shelves
Originally uploaded by Gary McMurray.

Amidst the exams, we're also facing the task of getting packed up to leave Dublin at the end of the college year. In previous years, most stuff could be left in the room for the following year, but this year, it all has to go northwards to Dromore before heading eastwards to the Curatage.

As you may notice, there's quite a lot of books here in my room. The shelves are looking more bare now, with three boxes already packed but a lot more to do! It seems very strange to be taking stuff down and getting ready to move on again, and yet it is the time to go, with new challenges and joys around the corner.

Perhaps the most challenging part in packing up has been my Bible readings over the past few nights. In Luke 12, Jesus is speaking about the proper attitude to wealth and possessions - after the parable of the rich fool. 'Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'

Does my library help me to serve God in the preparation of sermons and the increasing of knowledge, or do I serve my library by worshipping it? Lots to think about!