The Imagination of Ideas

 I am sitting in the Decatur Public Library, which serves as my office on Mondays and Wednesdays while Brenda continues her therapy. I am seated at a little desk next to a large window. From my perch, I can view traffic whirling past and from time to hear the sirens of emergency vehicles rushing to render aid to people in need. Next door is a bank. I watch people come and go doing their financial business there. 

What has my mind in a vice at this moment is all the imaginative ideas contained in the pages of the thousands of books in this place. From where I sit, one author named Clive Cussler, has five shelves of books devoted to his writings alone. I am intrigued as I read the titles, Havanna Storm and The Silent Sea. I have never read Mr. Cussler, but the lure of his works draw me like a moth to a flame. I may not be able to resist them much longer. Thousands of books with tens of thousands if not millions of ideas. Simply stimulating for this little brain of mine. 

I sit surrounded by volumes upon volumes of books on a variety of topics for people of all ages. There are novels of intrigue, mystery, romance, and espionage. Next, there are biographies and autobiographies which are my favorites. Books about famous and interesting people who accomplished things that inspire the rest of us ordinary people. There are also how to books. There are historical works reminding us of famous events of the past. I am blown away by all the authors who sat down, took the time to formulate plots, created characters, and then jotted all their ideas onto paper for readers to enjoy and learn. 

I realize that reading is a lost art. I certainly do not get to read as much as I would like to do. There was a time when I worked to read at least one book a week. That has slowed way down with other things crowding out that pleasure. The ideas and the imagination that thought those ideas are still out there. So much to learn. I am of the opinion that we should be lifelong learners.  Always advancing in knowledge. Always increasing in understanding. We should live inquisitive with a thirst to learn more. 

Christians can do so with reading the Bible. There are millions of books written about the Bible to help us understand it better. There are books written about missionaries, preachers, teachers, scientists, and soldiers whom God used in special ways. I wish I were a faster reader. I am not, so I am forced to plod ahead page after page sometimes taking weeks to get through a book. It never fails when I try to read at night, I fall asleep nearly every time. 

So many imaginative ideas and so little time to discover. Reading is like an expedition. So many treasures of ideas to discover. I typically read with pen in hand underlining and making notes in books on ideas that move me that I own. I certainly would never write in library books, though I might be tempted. It saddens me beyond description knowing that I will die one day with so many of my own personal books left unread and so many ideas left undiscovered. I am left to do the only thing I can. Plod ahead one page after page. Hoping to get in as many as I can. It rarely fails that something I read does not spark me to write my own ideas inspired by God in my imagination. I thank God for books and the blessing of learning to read. A gift I do not take for granted. I hope you will not either. So many ideas from so many imaginations. It would be a shame to waste them.