Author
This post is what my kids would call "random;" a categorization that seems to encompass quite a few possible characteristics including randomness.
Tonight I got to hear Phil Yancey speak at First Presbyterian where I normally am at work on Sunday Mornings. I had it set as an alarm in my cell phone for a couple of months. Tonight it went off at 6:00pm and I couldn't remember if that was the actual time or an hour before. I was out and about and had forgotten about it. I decided to bag it. But as it happened the church was on the way back from where I was so I drove by and saw people sitting through the open door. I had some trouble finding a parking spot, and finally walked in the door about 7:15. He had just started and went to about 8:00. So it worked out and I was glad.
Philip Yancey has written a bunch of books, 12 Gold Medallion winners among them, some of which I have read and enjoyed very much. He attended the school where I just finished six years of teaching. Interesting that he is claimed as an honored alumni because he is a well known Christian author, but he has had some critical things to say about the institution in the past. He lives in Colorado and to date has climbed 51 of the 54 mountains in the state that are over 14,000 ft. He says that way up there is where he has gained some insight about God's perspective. He talked mainly about prayer, the subject of his new book: Prayer; Does It Make Any Difference? In the doing, he wandered through many different subjects with a story for each. A couple stuck with me.
He told the story of praying in the basement of the KGB building in 1991 with some heavyweights of that organization. I remember reading that particular story in a magazine article he wrote at the time. And he spoke of praying for enemies. I rarely have entertained the notion that I have had any enemies. I suppose I'm blessed that that has been the case. But there certainly have been and are people who cause me problems and/or are an irritation. So I guess I can consider them enemies. The basic concept is the same; they are people I would naturally not think to pray for. And I need to do that. Amazing things can happen.
Then he told another story the bottom line of which was that God is already here, we just have to make him visible. We don't call him down into a situation with our prayers. He is already there and much more concerned than we are about it. But our prayer and action may be what is necessary to make him visible to the principal players. Good stuff.
No doubt all of this is included in it's full detail in the book. It will be on my reading list. Actually, I need to read a lot more of his books. He's a thinker worth reading.
Tonight I got to hear Phil Yancey speak at First Presbyterian where I normally am at work on Sunday Mornings. I had it set as an alarm in my cell phone for a couple of months. Tonight it went off at 6:00pm and I couldn't remember if that was the actual time or an hour before. I was out and about and had forgotten about it. I decided to bag it. But as it happened the church was on the way back from where I was so I drove by and saw people sitting through the open door. I had some trouble finding a parking spot, and finally walked in the door about 7:15. He had just started and went to about 8:00. So it worked out and I was glad.
Philip Yancey has written a bunch of books, 12 Gold Medallion winners among them, some of which I have read and enjoyed very much. He attended the school where I just finished six years of teaching. Interesting that he is claimed as an honored alumni because he is a well known Christian author, but he has had some critical things to say about the institution in the past. He lives in Colorado and to date has climbed 51 of the 54 mountains in the state that are over 14,000 ft. He says that way up there is where he has gained some insight about God's perspective. He talked mainly about prayer, the subject of his new book: Prayer; Does It Make Any Difference? In the doing, he wandered through many different subjects with a story for each. A couple stuck with me.
He told the story of praying in the basement of the KGB building in 1991 with some heavyweights of that organization. I remember reading that particular story in a magazine article he wrote at the time. And he spoke of praying for enemies. I rarely have entertained the notion that I have had any enemies. I suppose I'm blessed that that has been the case. But there certainly have been and are people who cause me problems and/or are an irritation. So I guess I can consider them enemies. The basic concept is the same; they are people I would naturally not think to pray for. And I need to do that. Amazing things can happen.
Then he told another story the bottom line of which was that God is already here, we just have to make him visible. We don't call him down into a situation with our prayers. He is already there and much more concerned than we are about it. But our prayer and action may be what is necessary to make him visible to the principal players. Good stuff.
No doubt all of this is included in it's full detail in the book. It will be on my reading list. Actually, I need to read a lot more of his books. He's a thinker worth reading.
posted by wingman at 9:56 PM
2 Comments:
Yancey keeps recurring in my own life recently. I'm going to try and read a book or two over break.
Considering what you have shared with me lately, some of his books would be just the thing.
Post a Comment
<< Home