WHEN DOES A BLESSING SEEM LIKE A BURDEN? ~ A few months ago, I would have said, "Never!"
However, after spending a month packing, a hard day moving with the
help of my church family and personal family, then this past week
finishing up the move of smaller items and cleaning with Dory and our
daughter, Lana - and now the task of making my books and computer, not
to mention myself - fit into my new home - I am beginning to wonder
about some of my blessings.
Roll back about 25 years and I lost most of my personal library in a storage facility mess up. So when we moved to Riverside 21 years ago - I had a minimal library. Then the new blessings began. First I discovered the Corona Public Library's "Friends Of The Library" bookstore. Wow! A whole room full of donated books I could sift through for books of good content and in good condition - at very good prices. Thus began the rebuilding of the Bill Gray library.
Then about 18 years ago, a dear Christian sister, Minda Zin, invited us to her children's piano recital at California Baptist University on a beautiful Saturday. As Dory and I parked and started walking toward the auditorium, I noticed boxes of books in the trash dumpster. I took Dory into the auditorium, seated her, and went back to do some "dumpster diving." Just imagine the view of a 6'3" guy, dressed in nice casual clothing - doing the "upside down dumpster crawl."
I found seven boxes of books, about 200, mostly commentaries and many in near new condition. I was in book lover heaven! I put those seven boxes of books in our car - and later told Dory, "You are lucky there were only seven boxes. If there had been eight boxes - you would have had to walk home!" Okay, I was exaggerating. I would not have made her walk home. I would have come back for her after I took my new library home. After all, I love her, too.
When I got home and had time to explore my newfound treasures, I found that these books I found in the trash dumpster had been the personal library of a pastor. I have no idea why they were thrown in the dumpster or what happened to the pastor. Even today that is still a mystery for me. So today I decided to see if I can solve that mystery. This is what I found:
Mystery partially solved. I still have no idea why someone threw his personal library in the trash dumpster. But several Christian sisters at our Fil-Am Church of Corona (now CICF), Minda Zin and Rachel Quintans, had a suggestion. They suggested that God was pleased with my Christian writing ministry - and gave me this instant commentary library to help make my writings more effective.
That could be, but I was, and still am, very happy that for whatever reason Trevie Dean's library was dumped - I was the one whom God allowed to find it.
I will close with one funny short story. Years ago when a pastor friend became aggravated at me (over something I wrote with which he disagreed), he made the caustic comment, "You and your trash can library!" Hey, we are all human and, yes, a pastor can get angry at times like all the rest of us. Jesus got angry, why not a pastor? I still consider him my friend.
So, why did this blessing seem like a burden? Ask all the guys who helped me move a thousand books - and I might add, very heavy books. On moving day, to one of our younger brothers from church, I commented, "Bet you never thought education could be so heavy, did you?"
God has truly blessed me. First with a good library and then with Christian brothers and sisters to move it. And one of these days when I finally get it all organized again - I will really be singing, well most likely dancing for I am not much of a singer, for joy.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
Roll back about 25 years and I lost most of my personal library in a storage facility mess up. So when we moved to Riverside 21 years ago - I had a minimal library. Then the new blessings began. First I discovered the Corona Public Library's "Friends Of The Library" bookstore. Wow! A whole room full of donated books I could sift through for books of good content and in good condition - at very good prices. Thus began the rebuilding of the Bill Gray library.
Then about 18 years ago, a dear Christian sister, Minda Zin, invited us to her children's piano recital at California Baptist University on a beautiful Saturday. As Dory and I parked and started walking toward the auditorium, I noticed boxes of books in the trash dumpster. I took Dory into the auditorium, seated her, and went back to do some "dumpster diving." Just imagine the view of a 6'3" guy, dressed in nice casual clothing - doing the "upside down dumpster crawl."
I found seven boxes of books, about 200, mostly commentaries and many in near new condition. I was in book lover heaven! I put those seven boxes of books in our car - and later told Dory, "You are lucky there were only seven boxes. If there had been eight boxes - you would have had to walk home!" Okay, I was exaggerating. I would not have made her walk home. I would have come back for her after I took my new library home. After all, I love her, too.
When I got home and had time to explore my newfound treasures, I found that these books I found in the trash dumpster had been the personal library of a pastor. I have no idea why they were thrown in the dumpster or what happened to the pastor. Even today that is still a mystery for me. So today I decided to see if I can solve that mystery. This is what I found:
Trevie Dean Named To Direct Lifeway Fund-Raising Effort Posted Tuesday, April 27, 1999
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Trevie C. Dean, vice president for institutional advancement at California Baptist University, Riverside, has accepted the newly created position of director of capital resources at LifeWay Christian Resources, effective June 1.
Before joining California Baptist University in 1985, Dean served as church business administrator/minister of education at Woods Chapel Baptist Church, Arlington, Texas; adjunct instructor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas; and instructor at Pacific Christian College, Fullerton, Calif. He has served as pastor, staff member, and interim pastor in other California churches.
He holds a B.A. degree in religion and B.S. degree in business administration from California Baptist University. He also earned master's degrees in divinity and religious education from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, Calif., and a doctorate in education from Southwestern Seminary.
Mystery partially solved. I still have no idea why someone threw his personal library in the trash dumpster. But several Christian sisters at our Fil-Am Church of Corona (now CICF), Minda Zin and Rachel Quintans, had a suggestion. They suggested that God was pleased with my Christian writing ministry - and gave me this instant commentary library to help make my writings more effective.
That could be, but I was, and still am, very happy that for whatever reason Trevie Dean's library was dumped - I was the one whom God allowed to find it.
I will close with one funny short story. Years ago when a pastor friend became aggravated at me (over something I wrote with which he disagreed), he made the caustic comment, "You and your trash can library!" Hey, we are all human and, yes, a pastor can get angry at times like all the rest of us. Jesus got angry, why not a pastor? I still consider him my friend.
So, why did this blessing seem like a burden? Ask all the guys who helped me move a thousand books - and I might add, very heavy books. On moving day, to one of our younger brothers from church, I commented, "Bet you never thought education could be so heavy, did you?"
God has truly blessed me. First with a good library and then with Christian brothers and sisters to move it. And one of these days when I finally get it all organized again - I will really be singing, well most likely dancing for I am not much of a singer, for joy.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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