An Old Emergence

Wonder. What an interesting topic. I’ll admit that it’s one I’ve been turning over in my mind constantly for the last few months, and when April approached me a few weeks back to share my reflections on wonder, I jumped at the chance. I had no idea how difficult this would be for me to do. It would be easy for me to stand here and tell you that wonder is what I experienced while standing atop Table Mountain in South Africa; that wonder is seeing things first-hand that can only be described as miraculous; that wonder is somehow being able to distinguish that you’ve heard the voice of God speaking into your life. And while all of those things would be legitimate, speaking about them would be the easy way out. Lately I’ve been struggling very hard to believe in wonder, or at least, struggling to let myself experience it. My cold academic mind militates violently against my deeply spiritual heart on a regular basis. Many days I find it hard to believe in a divine Other as I encoun...

I like lists. They help me be goal-oriented in a way that my self-diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder finds particularly satisfying. I make a summer reading list every May of books I wish to encounter in my time off from required reading. More often than not I will include the most recent book I completed so that I may begin my list with an accomplished task. Few things are more fulfilling to me than marking things off a list. I also make lists as reminders. These lists mostly appear when I am packing for a trip or preparing for a presentation. They're far less task-oriented than my other lists, and they help combat my poor short-term memory. I made a list last night that is far different than any of these others lists. I wrote down the names of twelve people. Seven months from now it will be the first day of January 2011. I will have graduated from Belmont and will be on the next part of my life's journey, whatever that may be. I have seven months left at Belmont and, perh...