Ever since a big hole appeared in the exterior wall of my office, which led to the total condemnation of the room as a functional workspace, which led to all of my books being scattered on shelves throughout the building, which is nice and better than book damage, I have a hard time with one particular aspect.   My memories of their appearance and relative location have become useless.

It’s grey, has yellow text for the title on the binding, and is on the second-to-bottom shelf over there.

Bad news: “over there” is gone.  The shelves are moved.  The book is with that one black sock in the dryer: lost forever.

Right now I’m looking for a book by Matt Chandler called the Explicit Gospel.  It’s grey, yellow text, etc.  My name is written inside of it.  I’m looking for a quote on page, like 30ish or so, which I underlined, which is a dumb way to remember things, especially if you can’t find the book.

When I first moved in, people said “ya know, they have kindles, now…”  This idea came from the kind people who helped move the boxes.  Believe me, friends… the thought has crossed my mind again in this instance.

Let me turn the corner now and say that finding my book would be nice, but what’s truly wonderful is all the people that help keep me swept into a nice clean pile.  I appreciate you all very much and would love it if you just stayed as awesome as you are.  Truth.  I am so thankful for people.  Certain people.  People who make our lives — my life — better.   The book scattering reminds me of how thankful I am for so many things.

You know how struggle which leads to the kindness of others makes you realize how wonderful some people are?  And then you realize that the struggle is what brought all of it to the surface for you to see in the first place.  And instead of being frazzled, you thank God for good, kind, servant-hearted people.  Yep.  That’s me, thinking about them.  Christa, Jay, Sue, Mike, Jim, Dan, and, of course, everyone else that I’m forgetting in this moment.

I bet you have those kind of people in your life, too.

To quote my friend Steve Brown: You think about that.  (I am, Steve.)