R.I.P. William F. Buckley

Last night I turned on Charlie Rose and observed that he was doing a retrospective of William F. Buckley interviews. Uh Oh, I thought, he must have died. I sent the Sixteen-Year-Old to google it for me and sure enough.

I will miss him. I loved to watch him talk. Honestly most of what he said sailed right over my head but watching him speak: his mannerisms, his inflections, his insanely brilliant vocabulary, fascinated me. So here's to a bastion of conservatism in a time when significant change seems afoot. We've lost a thoughtful speaker, writer and conversationalist and are left in a world where feeling now trumps everything and entertainment is what passes for news. Sigh. I think I'll make a trip to the library for one of his books before I start to forget.

Happy Holidays

In my efforts to shed my house of unwanted pounds we are tackling the Four-Year-Old's room today. So guess what? It's like Christmas all over again. Heaven forbid that anything land in the give away pile. Doing so immediately bestows favorite toy status upon the previously forgotten plaything. I'm going to employ some video game distraction maneuvers. Hey, don't judge, it's all for the greater good.

Some More About Belief

Can a person really believe without facing challenges to that belief? I understand childlike faith but can it be maintained if no one or no thing ever challenges it?

It is my greatest hope that my children's faith will become their own but my greatest fear is the opposition that they may face. How can I reconcile this? Maybe I can't. Maybe I just have to have faith.

Belief

Recently I discovered that someone I had assumed was a believer, was, in fact, not. By believer, I mean believer in God. I was shocked by this revelation because this person is very, very active in church. I asked myself, "What is my responsibility here?" And I had no answer for myself. I think about it a lot because my family runs the gamut of belief from hellfire and brimstone to agnostic, but I have never had much success influencing anyone one way or another. If anyone has an answer feel free to enlighten me.

The fact that a person can turn from one belief to another fascinates and moves me. My own story is very anti-climatic. I always believed in God, which I attribute to my mom. My relationship with Jesus began at a later time but it was basically a move from a belief to a relationship. One of my brothers, on the other hand, had a very dramatic conversion. I once witnessed a guy become a believer while watching the northern lights. He may or may not have been drinking though, and I was only acquainted with him for that one summer so I'm not sure if that one stuck. It would have been nice if I'd been in a position to point him in a direction that would strengthen his faith, but I was seeking the very thing at that time. Now that I am in a position to do so I am very nearly as clueless as I was back then. I have ideas, but again, few results. So what is it that moves a person from non-belief to belief? I mean, I know it is the conviction of the Holy Spirit but I would love to know from people, what or who convinced them to listen. And what did that look like?