I was never good at counting sheep.

I can't sleep.  It has something to do with my frequent cough and stuffy nose and something to do with my afternoon nap.  Maybe also something to do with the Coke that I drank at 10 when I came home from work.  Typically, a little Iron Chef can woo me into dream land, but no, not tonight.  I have to get up early tomorrow morning to make a pecan pie and try to bake my yam fries at the perfect time so that they're still crisp when we arrive at my aunt's house tomorrow. 

But I can't help it.

I've been working on and off on developing my online Bible study based on some universal (I'd like to think) themes in the book I wrote.  And the more I think of it, the more I'm compelled by the people in the Bible who struggled along with us!  Moses.. not a public speaker.. leads a million people from the hand of Pharaoh.  And I'm reading through Exodus right now, so I'm just getting started with these Israelite people, and I have to keep reminding myself that they're just like me.

I've always automatically assumed that believing God was easy for them because they were in "that" time.  It didn't occur to me that people in every age of history are still people-stubborn, afraid of change, (to name a few atributes).  And I'm thinking about what that must have been like... for some Hebrew stranger from the country to barge in on the people living in Goshen and say, "Get ready because God's getting you out of here."  And it doesn't happen right away.  And Moses probably looks foolish.  And how does he know that God's actually going to come through for him?!  That's some kind of faith. 

And then, on a totally different brain wave, I'm thinking about that woman in John 8 that is supposed to definitely most certainly get stoned (you know, killed) and yet she doesn't.  There's a crowd listening to Jesus and these ultra religious guys bring her into his presence and basically say, "How do you suppose we get rid of this garbage?" 

They say she deserves death.  He tells them that everyone does.  And then everyone, feeling a little sheepish and/or infuriated, leaves.  And it's just this adulterous woman and Jesus and he-the very person of God-tells her, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."  (John 8:11)

Sweeter words have never been spoken to this woman, I'm sure.  He frees her.  He sees her for her potential and not for her past, probably for the first time in her life.  He not only saves her life but he restores her soul. 

And so I'm just wide-eyed at all of these kinds of things that are coming to life in the Bible and I only hope that I can translate it into the study well enough that others will be inspired by these things.  So, I'm thinking about that and I'm thinking about pecan pie.  And my stuffy nose (for the fifth night in a row).