E Pluribus....None

November 7 was the 11th anniversary of my emigration to Sarasota. When I moved here there were three Christian "book" stores in town (that I knew of), now we have none.

First to go was the very nice little store, Hearth and Home. They succumbed not long after the the big, glitzy, mega-Christian store, Living Word, opened. With even more Christian-oriented trinkets and tchotchkes to offer as well as a good location that the typical lazy American would find more convenient, Living Word was destined to be the clear, ultimate winner.

The other contender, Family Christian, was a friendly, small but well-stocked store in a fairly convenient location. They held out for quite a few years after the mega-store opened, probably serving more the folks of the South-county, but they too fell from grace and closed a few years ago.

This left the Living Word victorious. Did I mention that his "bookstore" had, in addition to full,-blown bust-out retail prices a coffee shop and lounge a la Starbuck's? These days it seems that a bookstore is defined more by the "ambiance" of its coffee bar than by the quantity and quality of its merchandise. But as fate would have it, about 2 months or so ago, this mega-store ceased operation too, a victim of the ongoing economic depression currently playing in this country and most of the world....except the OPEC countries.

This got me to thinking about a few things:

1) The big, glitzy store did what most most super-stores usually do, drive out the little guys, even if the little guys are basically better businesses and have been there longer offering good service in their community. Sad but true. One almost wants to snicker and say "Well, those Mega types finally got theirs!" Really bummer kharma, man.

2) Christians are just as guilty of being too lazy to get in the car and drive a few extra miles as their secular counterparts, choosing instead to take the path of least resistance and go to the most convenient place, even if it's not of the same caliber of enterprise as another store. I mean "caliber of enterprise" to refer to less tangible qualities such as: customer service, "ambiance", friendliness of personnel, etc. The mega-store certainly had, in my experience, none of those qualities.

3) We Christians also are often guilty of idolizing the big, the important and the glamorous just as our secular brethren are. Face it, how many superstars of the Christian world are not white haired men with the title of "Doctor"? Answer: virtually none except for folks in the performing arts where youth is obligatory and the young and the beautiful are highly exalted just as in the secular world. We accord the same celebrity to our "Super-Christians" as the secular world does to their CEOs, stockbrokers, music and movie stars. Of course it's wrong, but human nature is a creature of habit.

We probably never will stop exalting the large, the glamorous or the conventionally important, whether it be in our secular or Christian arenas. We should look for occasions when we could and should exalt the mundane, the unsung heroes, preferably while they're still alive, not centuries later when it suddenly is acknowledged that that their contributions were truly significant.

The "ordinary" Christians, the real workers, deserve our recognition and praise just as the fallen "mom and pop" Christian bookstores would have appreciated our continuing patronage.