The Never Ending Post - Part IV

So, what is next? I am running out of steam on my social media activity, limping along on blogging. Not sure what to do next.

Maybe I should take up reading, again. I did a lot more of it before I started seminary, which I find ironic. School is making me cut back on my reading.

I need a big fat book to read. Feeling the heft of a massive tome (like Shelby Foote's tripartite on the Civil War). Something I can get into, grind through. Maybe try to wade through Charnock's The Existence and Attributes of God again, a little more intently this time. Or the seven Jules Verne novels in one edition I picked up a couple of years ago.

Maybe not. It may not be the time to run over covered, or semi-covered ground right now. I have a pretty big stack of unread books, and I got through a couple pieces of the Verne collection, and I do not need to take on a reread at this point. It would need to be something I have not cracked open yet (and that would leave out the Foote trilogy as well). Although the one book I will always read, no matter how many times I go over the same part, is the Bible. To me, there is no better indication of the divine inspiration of the Bible, that it is the word of God written into our hearts, than the fact that I never tire of reading it. Never tire of seeking Jesus in it.

I need a sense of accomplishment I cannot get from reading off a screen. I have to admit, there is something satisfying in finishing a big book that you do not get at reading a long blog post.

So I will cut this one off.

Now.

The Never Ending Post - Part III

Why do we try to go it alone when there are those who would help us along the way? We can seek out advice and sort out answers if we only stop and ask those who have our interests in mind and care enough to share their thoughts with us. Proverbs 24:6 states you need many counselors for victory.

Is it that you cannot win on your own? Or is it not victory unless you share it with others? Or are you just not smart enough to do it by yourself? Or is it we are to seek out others so that we learn also to seek out God? It seems the more I speak to others the less I realize I actually know myself. Some form of victory comes from being humble enough to know what you do not know.

But who to ask? I cannot believe victory comes from seeking counsel from those who are no wiser than myself. Maybe it comes form listening to people who do not always tell you what you want to hear, the wisdom of knowing in your heart what you hear is right even though you fight it in your head. (Here is an interesting sidebar. I went for my annual eye exam this past Saturday, convinced I needed a new prescription. I told the eye doctor that I felt my vision had changed quite a bit. When you have worn glasses as long as I have, you know when you have to move your head to get clear vision more than usual. The exam yielded no change of any significance, no change in prescription strength. I was puzzled, so was the eye doctor. Until I told him about the nose pad I had lost a month or so ago that I never got around to replacing. Seems the glasses were not sitting on my face quite the right way. Victory in an abundance of counselors. Duh.)

Maybe the victory comes over self, over realizing the limitations one has, which are often fogged from view by the mists of pride.

It is not enough to be smart enough to hear, you have to take that step to listen to what you heard.

Technorati Tags: The Never Ending Post, victory, counselors, wisdom

The Never Ending Post - Part II

I feel a poem coming on, have actually felt it for several weeks now but it just will not come out of me onto the page (actually, onto the PC). It is a frustrating feeling because I know it is in there, lurking in the shadows, waiting to see the light of day. It was fueled a bit the other day seeing my brother in Christ Barry at who am i? post one himself. It wasn't a feeling of jealousy or envy; it was like - there, someone else had something come out and when is it my turn? There is a poem in there, I am sure of it.

So what else is trapped within me, within us all. Imagine the untapped potential, the bottled creativity, the dreams and plans and wishes. Is it sad or hopeful that this is all in there with no foreseeable means of escape.

Until.

Oh well, no use worrying about something I really cannot control.

But maybe it is, for quite frankly, I do not know how much I am responsible for the cranial blockage I sense is going on inside me. But since I have no idea how to unstop myself it is not going to help thinking too much about it. Maybe I need to completely forget about the problem and it will self correct (In that case, blogging about it is not going to help one bit; I sense an ending coming on).

But really, what is stored up inside us that would totally blow our minds if it came pouring out, blow the minds of all who happened across our paths in that bright blast of intellectual energy. Super nova. Explosive. Astounding. And it could be inside of each and every one of us.

Ah, the possibilities. Guess it is time to go grab a bite. Got the idea of addressing my belly instead from reading my sister in Christ Laurie over at Beauty for Ashes this morning.

I love it when a plan comes together.

The Never Ending Post - Part I

I have pretty much held to the belief that less is more in my blog posts. I am a short order cook, trying to hammer it out in 500 words or less. And I must confess that I have trouble reading long blog posts by others. I find that interesting, a guy who would often pick books by weight (somehow there is nothing quite like sitting down with the heft of a good book in my hands, sorry Kindle. And what good is it spilling something on a page if the screen just wipes clear? There is literary value in picking up a book and turning to the mustard smear on page 178. Now I am not saying I will never get an iPad, or a Kindle or whatever Podunk that will invented and marketed for a span of a week that will render all previous Podunki obsolete. It is just I have to get my mind around giving up the heft in my hands of a good book. There, I said it). OK, where was I?

So now, I start what will be a never ending post, and a more stream of consciousness approach will be taken (as you may have already noticed), between and within the posts. And I am still trying to decide if the plural of Podunk is Podunki or Podunks. Let's just hope that never becomes the topic of a blog post. But it will be a proper noun in any event. And before anyone says it, I know I am stretching the definition, at least as far as Wikipedia is concerned, of Podunk.

Whichever direction and howsoever a particular post plays out, I will try to have some point to it. And the point here is I think I figured out is that the Kindle type devices, designed to allow a plethora of reading material to be encapsulated into a convenient, easy to pack and to carry and to meet airline weight restrictions is missing one crucial thing. It has not the heft of a good book (now I know there are good books that lack heft, I am reading one now, Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God by J I Packer, that weighs in at 126 pages in the copy I have. Not hefty by any stretch, but I can still riffle the pages. And you cannot riffle a Kindle).

I will not be a slave to that which I crave,
I will not be bereft of things that have heft,
I will not let my mind cloud by being proud,
I will not be a punk about Podunk
And you cannot riffle a Kindle.

To be continued, somewhere down the line on The Narrow Road.


Technorati Tags: J I Packer, Podunk, Kindle, Wikipedia