books, boundaries & borders

Over the past 2-3 weeks, I've had a rather elevated desire to read. Ever since I moved to New York, it's grown dramatically but even more over the summer. In light of that knowledge, I spent almost 3 hours in Borders yesterday (yes, one of the most beautiful Saturdays all summer I spent inside a bookstore) looking at tons and tons of different books that are on my reading to-do list. But what drew me in was to pick up a book called Boundaries that someone recommended to me last week. This is written by Christian psychologists about how to effectively set boundaries in your life in order to not feel responsible and burdened for things that you ultimately have no control over. I haven't started it yet, but am anxious to read it.

However, the sad realization I came to while in Borders is this: the last time I visited the Christian section in Borders it took up one entire shelf, front and back, and the front side of another shelf, all of Christian books- Christian inspiration, Christian fiction, Theology, etc. Yesterday as I searched for what used to be the "Christian" section, I noticed most of the shelves had been replaced by History sections and Eastern religion sections and other various topics. The Christian section was now squeezed into one tiny side of one shelf.

Sadly I don't have any deep or profound thoughts except that I just felt an extreme and real sadness at this observation as soon as I noticed this yesterday. Not that any of this is new news but it just reminded me yet again what a broken and fallen world we live in. When that becomes evident in such minuscule things as the book arrangements in Borders, I think that is only the mere evidence spilling out of a much deeper root issue. (I'm still hoping I was just confused after the rearrangement, but something tells me I should be less naive.) And what a sad issue it is.