In February, a company specializing in travel insurance polled 3,250 customers about their spring break plans, and according to the results, people want adventure in 2024—no matter the cost.
For instance, the survey reports, brave and bold spring breakers will pay an average of $11,124 this month to conquer Australia, where 10 out of 10 animals specialize in violently slaughtering tourists.
(Even the trees there sting.)
Admittedly, people who invest in travel insurance probably pay more for spring break trips than the average American (who also tries to avoid man-eating crocodiles). But even if the survey’s results don’t accurately reflect reality, the company still used their findings to promote a list of tips to help people travel more cheaply.
But after a Saturday spent shopping, I’ve discovered a spring break destination that costs nothing to visit.
In fact, those who travel there might return richer.
The used-book store.
This musty-smelling refuges for words — this haven for those weary of sound bites and hashtags — reminds people that ideas matters; more importantly, in a culture that irrationally demands people treat almost all ideas as equal, the used-book store actually forces ideas to compete with one another, and it forces people to practice thinking long before they even open a book.
As customers navigate the labyrinth-like shelves of books dedicated to African American nonfiction, boats and ships, yearbooks from the 1970s, ancient Scotland, and BBQ techniques, they must inevitably choose some ideas and reject others.
They cannot afford with their limited time and treasure to indulge every idea available. Reality simply won’t allow it.
They must ask themselves, “Which idea has more value?”
They must dare to discern.
They must dare to discriminate.
They must dare to weigh the worldviews that inspired the “Paranormal Romance” section against the worldview that inspired the “Selected Hymns and Writings” of John and Charles Wesley, and then they must judge those worldviews.
Of course, when novices navigate this ocean of opinions, they might choose a worldview simply because it comes wrapped in a colorful cover, but such superficial judgment eventually costs too much and rewards too little.
And it risks condemning readers to a lifetime lost in lies.
Ultimately, people must not only dare to discern and discriminate, they must dare to discern and discriminate well, and this dares them to ask, “What is truth?”
When they ask this question, they no longer accept ideas just because of pretty covers.
And they no longer accept ideas just because pretty people peddle them on social media.
And they no longer accept ideas by arbitrarily adopting them as “my truth,” as if their feelings or zeal magically alters reality.
The aisles of autobiographies of famous people whom few now know testify that ideas can’t survive simply because people declare them as true or valuable. Reality always has the final word.
And God has the final word on reality, and in His graciousness, He has blessed the world with a book that equips them to discern and discriminate well when they enter the used-book store — or turn on the computer or TV or read the newspaper.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding,” Solomon writes in Proverbs 9:10.
“But we preach Christ crucified … the power and wisdom of God,” the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:23 and 24.
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” he told the Philippians church in Philippians 3:8.
“And do not be conformed to this world,” he wrote in Romans 12:1, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
“Set your affection on things above” (Colossians 3:2).
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus says.
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