Part 1: The Discomforting Surmise. Can you imagine sleeping next to an uncomfortable person? Maybe you've been uncomfortable in your sleep before, tossing and turning, squishing your pillow around under your head, throwing out legs and limbs in an attempt to improve circulation and what not. Now let's just say this person is pregnant. Does that make it harder to sleep? Let's say they are 7-months pregnant. Aha! Now you're getting it. Now let's say they have no qualms about doing whatever it takes to improve their situation, even if it means you wake up in the middle of blurting out an accusatory "What the crap?!!" (Not that this has happened recently. This is all just surmise. And the annoying and accusatory manner could have been occassioned by a lengthy dream in which I was in danger of being scammed by a beautiful woman for my credit cards. Yes, and if I hadn't awoken -- again, all in surmise -- to express verbal annoyance, I'd have been the prime witness in an FBI sting operation...but never mind that.)
Part 2. Making the best of an awful night sleep during your day job. For anyone who is interested, I've been pleasantly distracted all day by the proceedings of the World Council of Churches' ecumenical conference on the Holy Spirit and world missions, going on right now in Athens, Greece. My favorite speech so far has been University of Birmingham's Kirsteen Kim, in her plenary address, "How do we Know When the Holy Spirit Comes? The Question of Discernment." Also a favorite is an eschatological paragraph on hope included in Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos' May 9 invocation. If you want to check out the resources available, which is everything from streaming audio to downloadable Bible Studies, you can go to Mission 2005.
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2 comments:
Hey Thom,
I've been following the developments at Mission 2005 myself. I get regular emails from the WCC in my inbox. Wouldn't you love to be there!? I'll have a look at Kirsteen Kim's presentation.
I have been pleasantly surprised with the materials made available at the conference. Growing up in more conservative circles, the WCC has always been a pariah. Perhaps the difference was just in conversation rather than in Kingdom.
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