Blogging like Mary

I'm an external processor. That is, the stuff rolling around in my head becomes more clear to me as I express it--a conversation, journaling, a haiku, whatever. This has been the tremendous blessing for me of blogging. Blogging has given me an outlet to process all the half-baked thoughts in my head. This is why the posts sometimes have large holes or don't quite make sense. The dots aren't always quite connected yet.

I returned home yesterday after five days in St. Louis at InterVarsity's national staff conference. And I have all sorts of half-baked thoughts rolling around in my head. Thoughts about I.V. as a national movement, thoughts from the fantastic teaching we received from the Scriptures, thoughts about ministry praxis, thoughts about all the football played over the weekend, reflections on how the Lord met me during my time there.

So earlier today I was considering this swirl of thoughts and wondering where to begin with today's post. And the Lord brought this passage of Scripture to mind: "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." That's Luke 2:19

Tomorrow I'm retreating for a couple hours with my staff team. We're going to take the morning to look back over the Scriptures that were opened up, sift through notes taken in seminars, pour over the spring semester's calendar of events, seek the Lord's Spirit and plead for understanding, wisdom, power, discernment, clarity. What would the Lord have us take home personally and for the campus this spring?

And so that means that for now I need to join Mary in not begin too hasty to make public what is not yet clear...or perhaps is just too precious for general consumption.