You never know what you'll find at the Red Door Book Store

Our library here in town has what they call "The Red Door Book Store." It is just a place for them to sell extra books they have to make money for the library, I think. I love going in there because there are so many good bargains. I think the most I've ever paid for a book is $1, and they always have a cart in the middle with books for 10 cents. Yesterday I found Thomas More's "Utopia" and a book by Corrie Ten Boom called "Amazing Love." Corrie Ten Boom's story has always inspired me. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend "The Hiding Place." Anyway, a few months ago when I went to the Red Door, I found "Markings" by Dag Hammarskjold. I don't know much about the guy, but there was story in a book we have at home about unsolved mysteries because I guess he died in a plane crash in the Congo, and it's never been determined whether it was just a plane crash or something more. He was also Secretary General at the U.N. So I thought his book would be a good book of history. It was quite different than I was expecting. It was a collection of poems and thoughts that sometimes followed a general train of thought, and others, if they did, I didn't see it. I'm not much into poetry, and there were a lot of poems, so those I kind of glazed over, but there were many jewels in there that made me stop and think. Here are some of them:

"God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."

Not knowing his personal relationship with God, I guess I can't say for sure this "steady radiance" he mentions is the Light of God, but it applies, doesn't it? It is amazing how we wilt without His Light as our focus. Another one:

Give me a pure heart - that I may see Thee, A humble heart - that I may hear Thee, A heart of love - that I may serve Thee, A heart of faith - that I may abide in Thee.

This next one is probably my favorite. It is a prayer, and the wording seems a little odd because it is translated from Swedish, but I think it also makes it seem more thoughtful and eloquent.

Thou who art over us, Thou who art one of us, Thou who art - Also within us, May all see Thee - in me also, May I prepare a way for Thee, May I thank Thee for all that shall fall to my lot, May I also not forget the needs of others. Keep me in Thy love, As Thou wouldst that all should be kept in mine. May everything in this my being be directed to Thy glory. And may I never despair, For I am under Thy hand, And in Thee is all power and goodness.

I have these three on my wall by my desk at work, and they inspire me every time I read them. Like I said, without knowing more about the guy and really studying the theology behind his faith, I don't know exactly where his heart was, and I don't think it's my place to know exactly where his heart was. If you ever get a chance to read his book, there are some interesting things in there.