Some Good Reading

Still working on writing a post that describes this week, but still needing to process, to think and pray a bit more before I really write it all out. So, in the meantime, I present to you my list of favorite blog entries or things I've read this week...

• This post on Debbie's blog about her trip through the middle east. She's in Israel just presently, and had some interesting adventures involving Jerusalem, and a psychiatric hospital. (really, you should read all of the few entries she's made thus far - Deb writes with a deliciously humorous and readable style.)
• This post on Kirk's blog. I've read it a whole bunch of times, bits and pieces, and the whole thing, over and over again. I got shivers the first couple of times I read it. It has been part of a number of things I've been thinking about and wrestling with this week.
• This other post on Kirk's blog. I think I actually read this last week sometime. But I read "The Da Vinci Code" last weekend, Saturday and Sunday, and then either Sunday night or Monday night had an intense dream somehow marked by the "sacred feminine."
• Other than that, I've been reading a number of books this week. A couple of novels - I particularly enjoyed "My Life as a Doormat (In Three Acts)" by Rene Gutteridge. I'm also working through a really excellent book by Mike Pilavachi entitled "Life Beneath the Surface - Thoughts on a Deeper Spiritual Life". Still reading Gary Best's "Naturally Supernatural," Steven Curtis Chapman and Scotty Smith's "Restoring Broken Things," Henri Nouwen's "The Wounded Healer," Dave Robert's "Following Jesus," and, of course, Scripture. I'm working my way through John just presently. I've been reading the Gospels since February - the Epic Retreat weekend. Falling in love with Jesus again - being baffled, amazed, confused, fascinated, and challenged by His life and the things He had to say. Also planning to start reading John Wimber's "Power Healing" in the next few days.
• And, last but not least, I'm reading a book of selected writings by a twelfth century German nun and mystic named Hildegard of Bingen. Primarily the writings are of the visions God gave her -intense, beautiful and confusing, and the meanings she felt that He imparted to the things she saw. Something challenging in some ways in a week where I've had a number of spiritual dreams.

And with that, I'm off. Taking my time today and just chilling. Watching some television, doing some reading and possibly some writing. Hanging out with a friend this afternoon. I'm thinking that I'll spend part of tomorrow camped out in a park somewhere with my journal and my books and Bible, reading and hanging out with God. I'm all about the slow and lazy days of life - how can I turn time spent reading and writing and hanging out with people into a career?