Blogger wouldn't let me post for a couple of days. Here I'm catching you up from my other blog.

November 8, 2004
Yesterday evening I attended a public conversation among three thoughtful people, including Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences guy), Andre Dubus III (author of House of Sand and Fog), and Renita Weems, an author, educator and minister. The moderator was author Scott Russell Sanders. The resulting discussion was fascinating.

At the very end, Sanders asked a question for us all to ponder as we consider how to make a difference in the world, and I found it hopeful and provocative. Usually when people consider how they might change the world, they're thinking "What can I change?" or even "What am I opposed to?" and one might go so far as to ask "What can I get rid of?"

Instead, Sanders posed the question in the positive: "Ask yourself, 'What do I want to see more of in the world?'"

He offered a starter list, to get us thinking. "Do you want to see more laughter?" he asked. "More happy, healthy children? Do you want to see more green space?" He had more items than that on the list; those are the only ones I can recall just now.

I loved the hopefulness of the question and how positive it felt.

What do I want to see more of in the world?

As a believer in Jesus Christ, this takes on an even more interesting slant...what does the Lord Himself want to see more of in the world, as far as I can ascertain from Scripture. Then, understanding that, what do I hope to see more of in the world and suspect that He might be calling me to be part of bringing it about?

It's a big question that I'm not sure I'm ready to answer.

November 6, 2004
This is a little silly, I'll admit, but sometimes I reach for my cell phone and realize I didn't really have a person I needed or wanted to call. I set it down, then, and realize I'm wanting to hear from the Lord.

It happens online sometimes, too, when I'm doing research. I'm looking up something in Google that leads me to something else and then I end up with big, huge questions. My cursor blinks on the entry line with the big G-O-O-G-L-E letters hovering above, and I think, "The only place left to look for the answer to this is the Lord." And then I sit for a moment thinking how nice it would be if the Lord had a system like this where we could type in our questions and issues, click "go" and pull up articles that represent His thoughts on the matter. How nice it would be if we could indeed pick up our cell phone and dial Him up to chat.

I hate to be too simplistic, but I think it really is sort of like that, otherwise what is prayer?

As for looking up subjects on a divine search engine, well, that's not so easy. For that He's given us Scripture and the principles they represent, but I find that harder. The wide range of interpretations are indicative of that, and I happen to be studying Judges right now. My class instructor is giving us some background to understand it better, but it's still hard. He has us back with Milton again, John Milton, reading Samson Agonistes. I don't expect Milton to serve as God's search engine, but he did meditate on that passage enough to address two theological concerns I had while reading the biblical rendition of Samson's life.

I have a list of questions I'd type into God's heavenly search engine, some of them more personal and private, and some more broad and theological in nature. I do ask, on the divine cell phone, but I haven't had very many of them addressed yet.

November 5, 2005-morning
Well, I slept and woke up, so it's the next day for me even though the date is the same on my heading. I just got a link to the Willow Creek Community Church website. They have discussion guides for each of Lee's shows, including this week's.

Click here for discussion guides