Reflections of a Freaking Genius

Thanksgiving Day in the Dougherty house has been interesting to say the least. Definitely not what I had planned...or at least the way I planned it. A friend of mine and I were just talking yesterday about flexibility and making plans.  You never know what's going to happen.   My wife has a friend who fell on some hard times and she's been doing all she can to help her get back on her feet by getting her hair styling equipment and cosmetics, clothes, and other essentials, and has been inviting her over to the house to show her love and hospitality.  I'm so proud of my wife taking seriously the things Jesus values most in the Kingdom, and that is showing love to those who have been thrust to the margins, even if it is of their own making (which is where most of our problems originate if we're honest).  That is truly taking seriously the mandate to create spaces where humans can flourish, and helping remove the barriers. My wife invited that friend over to watch mushy ...

  It isn't a huge revelation to say that our country, and our world seems more divided than ever.   It's only my opinion, but it seems as if a large part of it is goaded, prodded, and pushed through social media and what used to be called 'news'.  The last post spoke of the task of Jesus followers to create environments for human flourishing and removing hindrances to human flourishing.  I'm thinking that social media, and perhaps media in general have tipped more toward a hindrance to flourishing than a beneficial factor toward it.  The behind the screen written sniper shots aren't coming only from those who don't follow Jesus, sadly. If the differing ideologies have enough emotional steam it results in anger, frustration, conflict, disorder, chaos, violence and eventually war.  For those of us who are Jesus followers, we know from scripture that the enemy is constantly trying to drag God's good creation back to it's state of being "tohu va boh...

I'm sure I'm not alone in this but it seems as if there are times I'm put into the classroom in learning mode, perhaps even training mode, while not being granted permission to speak. This seems to be one of those times. I definitely have not hated it. There is an almost insatiable drive to read and listen, while sitting back at times to let the ideas roll around in my head in order to seek a greater understanding of the things I'm being taught. While I enjoy writing, I'm learning to respect the time in His classroom. I'm starting to appreciate sitting quietly as a student and receiving. I'm also finding out it's easier to choose education than feeling there is no choice at all.   A part of my education has been looking again (and afresh) at the beginning of history as recorded in the Hebrew bible; our role in the creation narrative in particular. When reviewing the sequence of events in the first page of the account, we see God separating and f...