Thursday, January 12, 2023

The Enigma of Room 622

   Joel Dicker's The Enigma of Room 622 is a great mystery.  It's on a long list of books that I figured I'd read over a week or so and ended up devouring in a few days because I couldn't put it down.  It centers an author who goes away to vacation and notices the hotel has a room 621, 621A, and 623, but no room 622.  Pretty soon he and his self-proclaimed assistant are exploring the story behind the murder that took place in room 622 years ago.

  My takeaway from this is how dangerous our appetites can be to the health of our souls.  As someone once said, the only word our appetites know is more.  How often have those who were content lost everything when they've chased even more?  It's so easy to get caught up in wanting more, and so hard to resist the siren song of keeping up with others, even when we're chasing something that we didn't even want at one point.  But those roots start small, and they sink deeper into our lives, when they've soon taken over and we're obsessed with a chase, even at great cost to us.

  It's what makes the 23rd Psalm so interesting.  When the Lord is our shepherd, we do not want.  How amazing is the thought of being fully satisfied and wanting for nothing?  That's a life worth striving for.

No comments: