I’ve been fluffing around lately. I see interesting things and generally ooh and ahh over it’s shiny veneer. I spend some time on my hobbies and enjoy world creation. Not a typo, I said world creation. The two worlds in the forge at this point are Lenga, which I’ve mentioned many times, and the Spring Football universe. The former is more or less based on the Roman Empire, the latter assumes that Donald Trump didn’t ruin the USFL. I took a hiatus from the Spring Football universe to play some board game football. I’m prepping for the draft on March 8.

Meanwhile, anything pertaining to religion has been pretty low-key. As stated earlier, I have been back to Delphi twice since my break with the ICoC blogosphere. Once out of curiosity, more recently as a result of the NIU shooting. Being a former board member, I don’t think it is possible to completely remove myself from the ICoC scene without attending and placing membership at a different church. I’m not a member of the church I attend, but I would have to attend elsewhere to really get away from the ICoC. Still, I am not going to instigate anything ICoC. Someone says something to me, fine, deal with it quickly and move on. Someone says, “you know what Gordo is saying now?” and I’ll avoid it. I get an idea in my head to see what X church leader is doing these days and a stinging self-rebuke is in order. That’s all part of my old life.

My online friend Doug went back to posting daily Bible studies. I know he enjoyed it and I enjoyed reading them. Cool stuff, really. Doing the same is not helpful to me right now, but I do plan on doing that at some point. I’ve gotten into at least three discussions lately where the disagreement turned into a criticism of my hermeneutic and eisegesis. (Not a misspelling.) In one case, I was talking about something that I hadn’t fully thought out in my own mind and admitted as much. The other two cases, though, led to disagreements about the implications of a stated belief. Someone would say something like the Bible says statement w, because of X verse, y verse, and z verse. I would respond that if you believe in statement w that implies statement U and statement U is not consistent with the Bible. Therefore, statement w may be wrong, inaccurate, or needs further thought. Then I say that we seem to have a different way of looking at things that will lead us to cross paths. That generally ends the discussion with a parting shot about proper Biblical interpretation.

I’ve learned that my hope for unity will not come through doctrinal agreement because there is a lack of agreement on hermeneutic, logic, and the value of intuition. I don’t think it is possible to come to an agreement on two of those three. Unity must come through something else – not the lack of conflict, but the focus on what’s really important. What is important is the work of Jesus.

More on that later.

Still, I work through things in my mind like the nature of God’s predestination. I’ve become interested in Molinism lately, despite the appearance circular reasoning by many of its largest proponents. No one has really stated it simply, which makes it dubious in my mind. Yet, I appreciate the idea that God is sovereign *AND* man has free will. (In all candor, if there is no free will, Christianity is pointless to me. I didn’t say everyone, I said me. I wish I could take Spurgeon’s take on a few areas and just say, “I don’t understand,” but I am not as strong as he was about it.) I believe in a God that has supreme power but also supreme self-control in that He doesn’t have to force choices on all of creation in order for the universe to work out as He plans.

But all this mental stuff leaves the heart dry and thirsty. I’ve taken Bobber’s suggestion at chanting the Psalms. The effort sputtered at first, but I hope that when the book arrives that he mentioned, this effort will get back on track. I plan to write about it when I start again. In the meantime, the heart delights in the simple pleasures of my children. Jesus said that we need to become like them in enter Heaven and I understand, in part, why.

Brother Bear has no problem starting new adventures because he doesn’t think about how much I love him. He knows I do. When he’s tired, he tells me, when he’s scared, he asks me for comfort, when he’s crossed a boundary, he respects my word. He revels in what he can do and spends most of his time doing those things. He likes to say “o” and “x” and a few other letters. He likes to run at full speed. He likes to throw all the cushions of the couch. He like to dive from one piece of furniture to the next (without a net). He likes to dance. Whatever he does, he does it as hard as he can without stress. Whenever he feels something, he expresses it. Whenever he has been naughty, he dislikes the whole process, but the drama ends when the process is over. It’s as if he is saying, There’s just too many good things to do. Despite the sometimes bewildering complexity of his personality, this fundamental thought seems to keep him going.

I’d like to think he gets it from me. If not, I’d like to think that I can be that way. Either way, I am ready to get back to it. There’s just too many good things to do.