My Duct-Taped-Again Thai-English Bible

Sigh.  I still have a long way to go.

Several years ago now, I purchased a Thai- English Bible to help me in both my own language study and also to have it close at hand when preaching or teaching at Hot Springs.  Truth be told, it's one of about a dozen Bibles I regularly use, and those Bibles don't represent my entire collection.  I have a wide variety of translations and paraphrases, different fonts for easy reading when preaching, parallel Bibles, Hebrew Bibles, Greek Bibles, German Bibles, antique Bibles, ...you name it, if it represents the Christian canon, I likely have it.

If it's true what they say, that "It's not hoarding if it's books", then it certainly has to be okay when it's Bibles?  Right?  I mean, really.

Right now, it might be sounding like I'm proud of all the Bibles I have, but that's not the point of me telling you all this, and I'm not done yet, so hold on.

My Thai-English Bible is one that takes quite a beating.  It is opened every day, along with my Hebrew and Greek Bibles, as part of my regular transcribing discipline of one verse every day from each Testament in all four languages.  Not only that, but my Thai-English Bible has a lot of air miles registered as it has come back and forth with me now for -- I've lost count.

With all that wear, and perhaps maybe because of less than robust binding techniques in Thailand where it was printed, the cover, even yes the hard cover, started to break down along the spine quite some time ago.  I did one fix with duct tape.  Not pretty, but functional.  And that seemed to work for a while.

But just before coming for this current trip, the duct tape started to rip apart, and the Bible became quite unsightly.  I put it in my budget to buy another one while I was here because, one can never have too many Bibles, and this one was clearly on its last legs.

In the first few days upon arrival here I mentioned to Yupa that I would like to visit the Christian bookstore in Chiang Mai to purchase a new Bible.  I showed her my tattered volume as proof of the urgent need.

And that's when I got 'the look'.

Not "the look" but a fun expression just the same.

 One of the joys of this incarnational, live stream, on site, real time, becoming part of the family way that my connection with Hot Springs has gone, is the delight of getting to know these people in deeper ways, familiar ways, connecting ways.  Yupa's facial expressions are vivid and revealing and delightful, in all the scope of them; as a Mom expressing dismay at the collection of old sports socks and popsicle sticks in a backpack; as a happy participant in our reading program sounding out the English words; as a sometimes exasperated wife (yes, it happens and it's so fun to watch them); and as a still-grieving Mom (with the second anniversary of Bee's death approaching at the end of this month).  Her face is a wide open book, and I love that about her, and I love that I can know more about what's going on in her heart and head even as I still learn the language.

But there's one 'look' Yupa has that is rather specific to Yupa.  It's when she disagrees but still wants to be polite.  It's sort of a mix of mild confusion with a squint of discernment and a twinkle of hope that she might convince you otherwise.

This is how she looked at me when I said I needed another Bible. " Really?"  (And this she said, not knowing how many other Bibles I have already at home.)

Then she pulled out some duct tape from a drawer and held it up.

So this is where I'm going.  It's often not until I'm here that I remember how much I am the product of my "privileged" life.

Why does it not occur to me that I can just duct-tape this Bible again?  How is it that I feel justified in spending another $30 on yet another Bible, when in truth, this one might not look pretty, or even preacher-worthy (cringe), but it's intact otherwise?  My spending expectations are completely enmeshed in the way I understand the world, and in that world, I basically can buy quite a bit without having to think too hard or too long about it.

Let me hasten to correct any misunderstandings.  I consider myself to be frugal by regular Western standards, and I likely am.  But compared to what Yupa lives with?  The gap is cavernous.  My journey toward simplicity continues at an embarrassingly tedious pace. 

So here I am again, duct-taping my Bible.  And it looks not so bad really in the end.  And I am humbled by it in more ways than one.

I've been on this quest before.  Between August 2016 and August 2017 I was on a 'clothing fast' where I determined not to purchase any piece of clothing other than that which was truly essential.  And even though I shop a lot at Value Village and other discount places, and would not have considered myself a clothes person at all, it was a difficult experience.  For one year I was reminded repeatedly that there are many things I want that I don't really need, and I just buy them without thinking too much about it.

Maybe I need to do this again.  Maybe with clothes.  Maybe with books (gasp! - With the exception of course texts, right?).  Maybe with Christmas spending.  I'm not sure.  But Yupa is my teacher in this.

Yupa, by the way, has NO clothing budget at all.  She makes do with pass me rounds and gifts.  That's it.

Sigh.  I still have a long way to go.