I’ve only visited one of these 17 Bookstores, and it certainly inspires me to book a bookstore trip tour. More than that, though, it makes me wonder what’s in a bookstore like these independent bookstores that inspires people towards quick reflection and silent browsing?
I have to wonder if it’s not the same emotion that leaves us, as humans, breathless in a cathedral or on the streets of New York looking up to the skyscrapers or gazing out on the gardens in Hanover or holding our breath as the shot as the shot clock ticks away goes up.
It’s the desire to be awed and inspired; to be reminded that there is something more than our mere humanity in this world; something that whispers of the extraordinary divine silently creeping into our ordinary world. Philosophers, scientists, poets, and religious leaders have reflected and pondered about these moments for centuries.
I just have to wonder how many people will truly experience one of these moments inside the walls of a church or place of worship in the coming week. In trying to create order, we may just have planned the divine and extraordinary out of our corporate worship times.
Leaving no room for the unexpected,
Engulfed in ordinary,
missing God.