There's this girl that I don't even know, named Sarah. She went to Bible School with Randy this year. She has a blog that I want to quote from, because she's on to something, a real important thought at least to me.

"...what about the dreams i felt were so inspired by God? could it be that these dreams were very much my own and not really God's plan after all? ... God instills dreams and visions within us simply for the purpose of leading us to His ultimate purpose for us. i now know that God did indeed place those dreams in my heart...maybe only as a necessary means to lead me to where He wants me to be. i'm still not sure of where that is, but this whole life is a journey of faith. one that i know i cannot take alone but must rely on God for my direction."

What she's saying is that just because plans change doesn't mean that God wasn't directing you "back then." It could have been, sure, that you totally missed God's leading, but it also could have been that He did have His hand on you because that's the direction He wanted to point you at that time.

I feel that my creative mind is coming back.

I went to an LBCC choir concert tonight, and it was a special one because Hal is officially retiring at the end of this year.

Oh man, I want to sing so badly! I've got to find an outlet. Come back Tom! I need time. That's what I need more than anything, when it comes to singing. In the absence of AHQ, I've made commitments up to my eyeballs to where I can't even seriously consider singing in an OSU choir next year because of time constraints.

But this concert. Tom, they did a Janequin, and a Grandage (the Australian Birds song guy) that was so cool. And they did this cute little Tango number, and the a "sensuous" (straight from Song of Solomon, I think) piece called Let Him Kiss Me. And of course a madrigal and a couple of fun spiritual-types.

Nostalgia ends up being a cheap word, I think. One that is thrown out with much passion by the one experiencing it, but received by those listening without much understanding. Because you can't understand it, unless you relate it to your own nostalgic experiences and even that is hard to do because nostalgia is hardly on-call.

By the way, an observation. When an individual is in the midst of an experience, they tend to subconsciously think that it will never end and it's always been this way. For instance, in San Francisco, the Giants started the season off really slow, but have since come on fairly strong. A local sports radio personality admitted that even he had a hard time believing that they would ever pull out of their slump. When the Giants were in the midst of that slump, the fan looks around and sees all the deficiencies in the team and feels that they will never snap out of it because they just aren't good enough.

But the truth is, it will pass. Mark Lowry says one of his favorite passages in Scripture is: "It came to pass..." "It didn't come to stay, it came to pass...either it'll pass or you'll pass!"

One more thing. I'm sort of thinking that evidence of the objective and historic truth of Christianity is critical.

You can say all you want that being a Christian and having the Spirit inside of you 1) gives you power over sin, 2) gives you peace, or 3) has changed your life. All true, but not good enough.

Some else you can say all you want is that Christianity is "different from x religion because..." but if it's just anecdotal, if it's just experiential what we have is one person's word against another. Who's to say that we experience answers' to prayer every day but the Moslem doesn't? Or that a devout Buddhist monk doesn't have peace? Who's to say that?

But, Christianity has a fact in its history that validates it.

Remember what Paul said. Without it, we are of all men most miserable.

Think about that. I've thought about it, I've puzzled over it. Because the Bible says that. But it doesn't make sense, because say Resurrection was not a historica fact. Wouldn't I still have the same peace, the sense of purpose, just because I believe Resurrection occured?

But the way Paul says it makes it sound as if this event is the single most important one in our religion.

Don't elevate experience to the height of objective truth, because from the question "what is truth?" everything stems.