If you asked 100 people, “Why do people go to a library?” you would expect almost all 100 of them to say something like “to check out books”, “to research”, “to read quietly” or something similar. If someone replied, “The purpose of the library is to make sure everyone’s library fines are paid,” you’d probably think that person was either joking, misinformed, or just plain stupid. You’d certainly conclude he or she was completely missing the point.
I’m a high school teacher, and recently one of my students went to the school library to return a book that was a month overdue. She came back wide-eyed and exhilarated and explained that the librarian had waived the fine. When the student asked why, the librarian replied, “I want people to love reading. How are people going to love reading when they have to pay money because they took too long to read? Just try to be on time next time.”
I simultaneously had two lines of thought run through my brain.
- If she did that all the time, wouldn’t they lose money? Wouldn’t students start taking advantage of it? Wouldn’t the very fabric of high school libraries across the globe begin deteriorating?
- What a stunning picture of grace–not only of grace, but of the entire thrust of human history.
Rewind the clock to the very first tick of time. Then keep rewinding. You may hear some loud clicks and think you’re breaking something; just keep doing it. Before the minute hand was invented, before the first drop of water or glint of light, before the first hiccup or ligament or quark or overdue library book, God had an idea. He desired love, discourse, worship, and relationship. That is why we were created. To use the library metaphor, we were designed to fall in love with reading.
So why do so many of us think the whole point is to pay our fines and keep a clean record?
If your life consists merely of being a good person and keeping a clean ledger, you’re tragically missing the point. You’re staring at a tile and missing the mosaic.
But wait, are you saying rules and holy living don’t matter? The Bible has a bunch of rules about holy living, doesn’t it?
Tons of them. And they all ultimately point to love and relationship.
Does God not care if we live right, follow the rules, keep a clean ledger and “pay our library fines”1?
Absolutely He does (“Be holy as I am holy”2). He also cares deeply about our hearts (“Rend your heart and not your garments.”3). And regarding those who pursue lives of pristine adherence to the rules while neglecting a heart that loves, the Bible has nothing good to say about them.4
Two quick case studies:
- David: Whoa, Nellie! Did that boy have some overdue books. Several of them. Huge fines. But he loved reading. And what was said of him? A man after God’s own heart.5
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Saul-before-he-was-Paul: Squeaky clean library record. Checked out tons of books. Bragged about how many books he read. Hated reading. What did Jesus say to him and his cronies? Why do you hate me, you whitewashed tombs of decaying bones?6
I think David fared better.
I’ll end with this: if God were a librarian and you brought back, one day late, a copy of The Two Towers or Dr. Zhivago or Cold Mountain or some other book that you were so excited about and chomping at the proverbial bit to talk about, do you think God would cut you off and say, “Hold on, now. Suzy over here doesn’t have any fines and has checked out lot of books and read them all out of duty and doesn’t like any of them and doesn’t want to talk about them. But I want to talk to her about her lovely library record with no fines. You’ll have to wait.”?
That would be be an awful librarian and, dare I say, an awful god.
So go out and live holy and pay attention to your library record. But don’t miss the mosaic; fall in love with reading, that is, fall in love with God.
- I put this in to keep the library metaphor, but it’s in quotes because the fact is that Christ paid the fines. ↩
- Leviticus 19:2 ↩
- Joel 2:13 ↩
- Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8 ↩
- Acts 13:22 ↩
- Acts 9:5; Matthew 23:13-33 ↩
yodelingcatfish 
good stuff. I understand you said Christ paid the fine, but I just wanted to state for the record that I don’t believe Christ issues punishments except on rare occasions (such as when the angel struck down Herod or when Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead). such examples are extreme exceptions within the overall story of Jesus. I think the consequences of our sin is enough to teach us about the rightness or wrongness of our actions.