Most of my readers are probably familiar with the Mises Institute and their Austrian Scholars Conference. However, the Ligonier Conference I attended this past weekend fits into a little different category. It is a conference put on by Ligonier Ministries of Orlando, Florida. It is named Ligonier because the whole thing started about 40 years ago in Ligonier Pennsylvania. It is a center of Reformed theology and teaching. Most of the people involved with it are Presbyterian and while I’m a Reformed Baptist, we agree on many other points of doctrine. My church, Grace Reformed Baptist, uses some of their teaching series in our Sunday School and Wednesday services. One of the giants of Ligonier Ministries is R.C. Sproul who is something of a celebrity among the kids (or at least my siblings) of our church. I think it was rather shocking for them to realize that I would actually get to see R.C. Sproul at the conference. Anyways…with that introduction, let me get into the real stuff…

The theme of the event this year was “The Christian Mind.” This was one of the main reasons I decided to attend because I feel like this such an important but neglected topic.

The conference started on Thursday afternoon with a great introductory lecture from R.C. Sproul. I disagree with him on several issues, but what I love about his speaking is his knowledge of philosophy, history, and the intellectual movements of history. His series called “The Consequences of Ideas” is amazing. It is a history of philosophy from a Christian perspective. It is an incredible intro to philosophy. Anyways, in his lecture he talked about the different philosophers who have tried to describe the relationship between thoughts and actions. And he summed that discussion up with the Bible verse, “as he thinks in his heart, so he is,” (Proverbs 23.7) as the Christian response to the thoughts/actions debate.

And then he talked about the mind and the will. This could have been a lecture at the Mises Institute. Even though he didn’t frame it in that way, he was essentially talking about praxeology and human action. At any point in time, we just choose between a myriad of options for action. And not only can we choose the option that we want the most, we must always choose what we want the most. If someone comes up to you with a gun and says, “give me your wallet or your life,” you still have the freedom to choose, though your choices have been limited. So this is a kind of determinism, as we can only do according to our strongest inclination. But it is self-determinism, and it is what defines human freedom. Applied to theology, because we are all naturally depraved, our strongest inclination is to rebel against God. That is why we cannot please God or live for Him in our natural state. He has to change our natural inclinations so that we can want to love Him.

Lastly, he pointed out that on the Judgement Day, God will not judge us by what is in our head but by what is in our heart. But nothing can get into our hearts without being first in our minds, and that is why the Christian’s mind is so important.

The second lecture was by Robert Godfrey and he traced the history of the church and anti-intellectualism in American history. He argued that America began to change with the election of Andrew Jackson, a populist. The power shifted from the “snobs to the mobs.” There was not only a political shift towards democracy, but this influenced all of culture. With the expansion westward, there was more emphasis on the individual and their independence. There was a cultural revolt against the perceived elites, the lawyers, doctors and preachers. The response to preachers was, “if the Bible is clear, why do we need the ‘experts’ to explain it?” The focus in religion also shifted from thinking to doing. This was partly because of the developing eschatology of the emerging denominations and there was more importance placed on social work and making this world a better place to live.

The opposition to Christianity did not come about because the Church was unable to answer the accusations of the secular world, but because the Church simply retreated and failed to answer. There are scholarly answers to the world’s attacks, and we need to be intellectually prepared to give these answers. And he ended with a quote from Calvin, “nothing is as arrogant as ignorance.”

The third lecture was from Albert Mohler. He points out that people rarely take the time to think about thinking. But as Christians we need to think about thinking because how we think will affect how we live. If we want to live faithfully, we must think faithfully. The Christian lives in the midst of a crisis in thinking. Since the fall, all humans have been rejecting and suppressing the truth. We can only embrace the truth through the grace of God. Then he listed 14 noetic consequences of the fall, or, 14 ways that the fall has affected the way we think:

1. Ignorance
2. Distractedness
3. Forgetfulness
4. Prejudice
5. Faulty Perspective
6. Intellectual fatigue
7. Inconsistency
8. Failure to draw right conclusions
9. Intellectual apathy
10. Dogmatism and closed-mindedness
11. Intellectual pride
12. Vain imagination
13. Miscommunication
14. Partial knowledge

The fourth lecture was delivered by R.C. Sproul Jr. on the scandal of the evangelical mind. The scandal of Christianity is that God took on flesh, lived among His creatures, lived a life of perfect obedience, died a humiliating death at the hands of his enemies, but rose from the dead three days later and forty days later ascended into heaven. This story is a stumbling block to world. And sadly, Christians have been offended that the world is offended at this story. Instead of recognizing that the world views this story as foolishness, Christians insist that the world accept this as a sensible story, though no one can accept it without the grace of God regenerating them. Also, Christians ought to be evangelical. That is, we believe the Gospel or the good news. But more than this, we must have a passion for sharing this Gospel. And sadly, we have become so caught up in criticizing the way everybody else evangelizes, instead of just getting to work and sharing the good news with a desperate and dying world.

For Reformed Christians, who often view themselves as the “brains” of the Church, we can try to mix our dross with the gold of God’s message. We need to have humility, and recognize that all we have is a gift of God and “but for the grace of God, there go I,” instead of trying to impress the world with our clever arguments.

This is rather ludicrous. I have A Tale of Two Cities on my desk, right next to my computer, with my bookmark inserted at the end of Chapter 1, and although January 31st is looming ever closer, instead of picking it up and plodding through Dickens, I’m blogging.
Like, I never blog unless I have absolutely nothing else to do or unless there is some earth-shattering thing to say. But suddenly this evening it is of immense importance that I blog, even to the point of abandoning Dickens for the sake of blogging.

So instead of reading a book, I’ll write about books.

I’ve been thinking the last couple months that I haven’t read near as much as I should. Since I buy abou 5 books (on average) from Amazon every month, and probably read about 1 a month, my “to read” pile is growing much faster than my “already read” pile. Like most people, I always make excuses and tell myself that “next week I’ll have time to read that book” or “I’ll read that on my next vacation.” Yeah right. The only book I actually read while on vacation was Tess of the D’Urbervilles and I bought that one while traveling, I didn’t bring it with the intention of reading it. Anyways, I’m always trying to think of ways to fool myself into things I should do, so my latest ploy has been to write up a 3 month schedule of reading, with 1 book per week. Well, on Tale of Two Cities, Atlas Shrugged, and Brothers Karamazov I’m allotting 2 weeks, which is pretty darn generous. My theory is that I’ll realize I can’t just put off all my books until the last week of March, so I’ll be more apt to read 1 every week if I know there will be another one due the next week. It has worked.

So far.

I not only read my assigned books, I read 5 extra. That makes for a total of 8 books this month. All but one of them are books I own, books which sit  quietly on my shelfs, silently begging me to pick them up and read. I’m excited to see more of them stacking up in my “already read” pile. Makes me feel good.

Anyways, in the spirit of procrastination and trying to avoid Dickens, let me list the books I have read with a brief review of them.

1) Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor. I have this love/hate relationship with Flannery O’Connor’s fiction. Technically, it isn’t hate, it is just an “I don’t get what you’re talking about” feeling versus a “That’s the most profound thing I’ve ever heard” feeling. This book was a collection of her essays and speeches, primarily on writing. They are much more accessible than her fiction. You don’t have to wade through artificial legs, nasty grandmothers, serial killers, and all that interesting stuff that makes Flannery O’Connor well,  Flannery O’Connor. There are some really great comments she makes on writing and it has really inspired me to seek out authentic, real-life characters and plots in my own work instead of settling for anything less.

2) The Capitalist and The Entrepreneur by Peter Klein. While some of this was over my head, I appreciated the main theme: being an entrepreneur can’t be found in a magic formula or secret recipe. It is about knowing what consumers want, when they want it, and what price they are willing to pay for it. It brings to mind the Hayek vs. Keynes Round Two video where Hayek says, “put the wrenches away, the economy’s organic!” In contrast to the mechanical motor Keynes demonstrates, Hayek reminds us that the economy isn’t some circular flow or machine, it is comprised of millions of individuals trying to achieve their goals. And the entrepreneur is a fundamental part of that desire to obtain our ends. We can’t do everything and make everything. We don’t want to take risks. We don’t want to wait 5 years to get the first paycheck from a new invention. But the few that are willing to wait and risk everything are vital to the free market.

3) 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson. Since this is the first of a trilogy, I can’t really say how I liked it. I don’t know how it ends. But the plot was good, and the writing superb. I’m always looking out for modern people who can write well, and N.D. Wilson can do it. I read this mostly because I was thinking I might assign it to one of my sisters to read in their literature class. I’m also always curious to read anything remotely like C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. I’m curious to see how other people portray both their Christianity, their imagination, and their commitment to good writing.

4) Manalive by G.K. Chesterton. I had to rush through this one because my sister was waiting to read it for her literature class, since the library has failed for almost a month to procure a normal, unabridged book copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (first they sent the movie, then I said I wanted the book, so they sent a comic book version, we’re still waiting…). I thought it was quite good. I couldn’t quite describe it. It is like a happy Dostoevsky, because the main character, nicknamed “Innocent” reminds me so much of Prince Myshkin in The Idiot. The theme is that this one strange individual encounters several people who seem confused, and sometimes threatened, by him. His joy, his vivacity, his simpleness of mind, and his passion for life seems to unnerve them. While it didn’t have much of a plot, as my sister pointed out, I liked the theme and thought it was quite good. G.K. Chesterton conveyed his ideas, the setting, and the characters very well. It did verge on the absurd (actually, I think it plunged into the absurd a few times) but this was only to make the reader realize what a glorious, beautiful world we have been given.

5) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle. When I saw a used copy of this for sale at the library, I was intrigued and decided to read it. I know it is considered a “classic” so I wanted to read it to know if I should assign it to my sisters or not. I didn’t care for it much. I didn’t think the style of writing was very good. There were a few excellent parts, but overall, it was mediocre. The ending was weak. Spoiler alert: I knew how it would end as soon as one of those ladies told the girl about the one thing she had that It didn’t have. I got this sinking feeling and as I read on, I knew it was going to be that way. Of course, it would be Love that would overcome It. I mean, it doesn’t get much more cliched than that, right? I was hoping there might be something redemptive about the love, something that hinted more at the sacrificial nature of love, that love isn’t just a feeling we get or words we say…but I didn’t find anything like that in there. The whole idea and plot was pretty good. I liked the integration of some math/physics into the story, that was interesting. I also didn’t like that when the protagonists were being told about the battle between Good and Evil going on in the universe and they were asked to name some figures from Earth’s history that represented the Good/Light, one of them mentioned “Jesus” and then in the next breath, “Ghandi” and a score of other people. For being a supposedly Christian book (I think?) this idea isn’t exactly Christian. The whole premise of Christianity is that Jesus wasn’t a good man, He was the Son of God and our Savior who came to sacrifice Himself to satisfy the justice of God so that all those who might believe would be saved. To name Jesus and Euclid as being examples of Good on earth totally ignores the fundamental nature of Jesus: He was God and Man. He, the Eternal Lord of the Universe, “became flesh and dwelt among us,” and you can’t say that about Ghandi or Euclid.

6) Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. I wasn’t very impressed by the one other book I read by Piper called Think. Don’t Waste Your Life was better. I liked his message and felt like it had a little more depth than Think, but I still am not impressed by Piper’s style of writing. His ideas seem to be captured in this mundane, casual style of writing.

7) The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I’ve been curious about this since I was down South this summer and all the elderly ladies were talking about it. According to them, it is a very accurate portrayal of life in the South during the 60′s. Because of that, I thought it would be worth reading. I liked some things about it, but I didn’t feel there was much character development. When a young lady tries to create her own identify and “grow up” by buying short skirts and low-necked dresses, you have to wonder how much she’s really learned or matured. The style of writing was quite good, I thought, considering that it is not only a modern book but also hugely popular. I didn’t like some of the language used, so if you’re going to read it, be aware there is some bad language.

8 ) Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. I never got into the whole Rebelution movement, I guess because it came rather natural to me to always be striving to do new things. It wasn’t (and isn’t) a revolutionary idea that young people need to apply themselves and actually start using their minds instead of just entertaining themselves. So although it was preaching to the choir for me, it was good. I’ll probably have my sisters read it in the next couple years. And I think I’ve gotten stuck in a “I’m so busy with work” rut lately, so the book did inspire me to not give up and to try to manage my time better so I have an opportunity to do more hard things.

And that brings us to…A Tale of Two Cities which is still patiently sitting beside me. Don’t get me wrong, I like Dickens. Great Expectations was great. So was Oliver Twist. It is just that I’m a little daunted by such a big book with so much going on. And I have to really concentrate because Dickens apparently never learned how to write a simple sentence. His sentences run for paragraphs and paragraphs (ok, not quite that bad) so it takes a lot of effort to keep my mind on going with the sentence.

I can’t think of anymore excuses, unless I go through my entire library and give reviews of every single book, so I must go try to get through another chapter tonight.

So it has been a long time, but as Pascal said, “the silence of these infinite spaces frightens me” so my fear of this dreadful silence drove me back.

Actually…I felt rather guilty about having such good readers (at one point) and then dropping them so callously. I feel like I’m starting all over again, but that’s okay. And I also felt bad about putting so much time into this site and totally neglecting it. I had been something of a plugin junkie, so I’ve been dreading coming back and trying to clean up all my old plugins but it is done at last.

Also…I’ve been working on redoing my company’s website, I’m transferring the hosting from Blue Genesis (really bad customer service, a website backend from the Middle Ages, and absolutely no options) to Bluehost (great customer service, free WordPress plugin, and a billion options) so I guess the feel of messing with a website again just made me realize how much I missed this one.

So…an update:

- Still working. Going well. Every day is different. It is interesting, I’ll just say that.

- Still learning. Buying books like crazy. I’ve only read about 60% of the books I own, so my goal this year is to get that percentage much closer to 100%. Unfortunately, regular book binges at Amazon will not make that task any easier.  I also took a couple Mises Academy classes in November. And am still struggling to fit in Khan Academy Chemistry.

- Still teaching. My sisters are the unwilling victims of my need to teach, haha. So we started with US history over a year ago, have spent the last semester of 2011 in the Civil War and will probably spend at least another semester there. I don’t know when we’ll actually get done with it. I recently added literature and music history. I think it is really fun, but they aren’t too thrilled about all the assignments. But it is good for them. They’ll thank me some day.

- Still writing, kinda. I keep telling myself that each week will get less chaotic and I’ll actually have time to work on my next novel. I don’t know if this will happen or if I’m just fooling myself. I’ll know for sure in a few weeks.

- Still planning. I don’t think I’ll be attending Mises U this year, but am tentatively planning a trip south to hit the Mises Circle in Greenville, Austrian Scholars Conference in Auburn, and a Ligonier Ministries conference in Orlando. And if this does work, I’ll be flying which is a really big deal for me! I’m just trying to coordinate it so I can fly out of small airports and avoid the hassle of all the new security techniques.

More later…maybe…

Note: This is not an apology for my beliefs, but rather the justification of them and my reasons for the said beliefs.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Facebook, let me briefly explain how it works: everyone on facebook has a profile and a wall. A wall is where they post updates, links, etc…and by default, everyone else who is their “friend” can see and comment on anything on their wall.

Is that all settled? Okay…let me begin…

I posted a very innocent update to my wall, announcing that I’ve started a new book and the working title is “All that is Light is Eternal.” Someone commented on that with this question about how the sovereignty of God could be compatible with human will. I was a little puzzled because I had no idea (and still don’t) how this was related to my original post. Basically, before I took the time to answer this question, another friend commented with some atheistic responses. There was some dialogue between the two, and then this friend posted a 5 paragraph diatribe declaring that anyone who believes in a deity is stupid and irrational. I emailed this person and said something like this:
“You are a libertarian like me, and so we both respect private property. I would not put religious signs on your property and would respect your beliefs. Likewise, I would expect  you to keep atheistic signs off my yard. I see Facebook like our yards. I appreciate helpful and informative dialogue about different opinions, but I do not want my Facebook wall to be used to promote your atheistic beliefs. I ask that you delete that comment.”

The person replied and said they would delete it and only wanted to encourage discussion and did not appreciate my censoring of their beliefs.

So I deleted the comment myself and wrote a comment explaining my reasons.

I don’t write this post to rehash what happened, but wanted to explain what led up to my consideration of this issue.

My basic thinking goes like this:

1) The owner of private property has the right to decide what happens on that property.

2) A facebook wall is, in a sense, private property. (Yes, the owners of Facebook ultimately control it, but none of my friends do. For all intents and purposes, it is the same as private property. It is connected to a specific person who has the power to control it.)

Therefore, the owner of a facebook wall has the right to decide to allow or prevent certain subjects from being discussed.

I was not really bothered that I was accused of being a close-minded person who refuses to participate in dialogue or discussion over beliefs. I was bothered by the accusation that I am censoring other people.

Censoring is where a book, or other form is media, is officially reviewed and banned from the public knowledge. In other words, governments censor. A facebook user doesn’t censor. If I were actually censoring the discussion, I would be able to control the participants’ ability to continue the discussion anywhere else on the web. As it was, I even suggested that they move the debate to 1) their own wall, or 2) a Facebook note. Later I thought of other options including a Facebook group, or even a blog. I would have absolutely no control over what these people say or argue in these other places and frankly, I wouldn’t even care.

Jeff Tucker, over at Mises.org, recently compared Facebook to a dinner party where you invite your coworkers, friends, acquaintances, family members, and college roommates. Yes, as you can imagine, it can get awkward. As the host of the dinner party on my wall that is made up of all my “friends” I have the right to choose what subjects are discussed. If I refuse to let anyone else speak, but just keep spouting off on my own ideas, everyone will just ignore me and eventually unfriend me. It isn’t that hard to ignore someone who is disagreeing with you in an offensive way…as long as they aren’t doing it on your own wall.

And just to make it clear, I also practice my own advice. I rarely comment on posts on Facebook and if I do, it is to agree with a person or say something positive. I never use another person’s post as a reason to argue my own beliefs. Maybe I’m going a little bit overboard in the other direction, but I have a very limited time on Facebook every day, so I just try to avoid any controversial posts.

When this whole “drama” on my wall started, I was trying to decide what to do as a Christian and as a libertarian. As a Christian, I want to be polite and kind to everyone. As a libertarian, I have the right to decide what happens on my wall. I feel that I took appropriate action before actually deleting the comment and as the person did not respond in an understanding way, deletion was my only alternative unless I wanted this debate to rage for 50+ comments…all because I said my next book’s title is “That which is Light is Eternal.” I’m just saying this because I think it is an example of how conflicts can be resolved not only online but also in a free society.

I apologize for my lack of presence here for several weeks. The first couple weeks of July I was busy working to make up for leaving for 3 weeks. Then of course I had to pack and prepare for my trip. Then I was on the road for a couple days. After arriving in Georgia I had several promotional events to attend for my book, Path of Grass. Then I found myself in the middle of a huge Southern family reunion for several days…then we made a mad dash for Auburn and spent 42+ hours sitting in class for the next week. Got back to Georgia last night…so doesn’t it seem understandable that I haven’t had time to blog?

Now we’re leaving tomorrow to spend a few days in Kentucky with the family…then it is back to work for me. So, I plan to have a more complete report of Mises U for you later this week. Suffice to say, it was absolutely incredible. Far better than last year. It was better mostly because I had been studying online with some of the students before Mises U so when I got there, I actually knew a lot of people and that made it more fun. Tom Woods gave an incredible speech Thursday night. I’m going to do a post with links to my favorite speeches from the week.

Mises U has inspired me to 1) keep studying and 2) keep sharing. I hope this fall I will have some opportunities to teach and lecture on what I’ve learned. Some of the students are going to start reading Man, Economy, and State together and I plan to participate in that. Reading MES will be really good for getting the big picture of how everything fits together. I’m also really interested in capital, the structure of production and the business cycle. I know the Austrian Business Cycle Theory, but I want to find out how exactly it is worked out in the real economy. I also hope to do more writing and maybe start posting more regular articles on my website.

Bottom line: More stuff later.

This is something I’ve been mulling over for some time, and felt like posting it tonight.

There are have been a few incidences recently that have reminded me of this idea. God is so much bigger than we can imagine. He doesn’t fit into our neat compartments. He is like Aslan, we can’t keep God in our wallet or beckon like a genie at our whim.

The story that comes to mind first is the water from a rock in the Old Testament. The Hebrews were wandering in the desert, complaining and rising up against Moses because they were so thirsty. So what does God do? What would we do? What would I do? I shout down from the heavens, “you ingrates! I brought you out of Egypt! I rescued you from the hand of Pharaoh! I parted the Red Sea for you! You’ve been slaves for 400 years and you’re free now! Isn’t that enough? Can’t you endure a little pain and inconvenience? Don’t you think I’ll save you from death by dehydration, I’ve saved you from a thousand deaths already.” But that’s not what God did. He commanded Moses to strike a rock and suddenly water came pouring out, enough water for all the people and all their animals.

There are two aspects to this whole thing.

First, what I’ve been marveling about is God’s creativity. His imagination is so much greater than our feeble minds. I mean, if I were going to give a million people water, I would not have it come from a rock. That would have been the last thing I would have imagined. Water coming from rocks just doesn’t fit what we know. Obvious examples of this is all around us. Why would God make certain birds pink? And how in the world (I should say, universe) did He think of making penguins? Or the myriads of other wonderful, crazy animals? Or the sky. I would have made the sky some pale whitish color, so it wouldn’t distract our eyes from the other sights of the planet. No, God makes it a brilliant blue. Of course there are scientific reasons for the sky being blue, but I rather think that He first decided to make it blue, and then designed the system of science and colors and all that around His choice. Look at all the other examples in the Bible. Elijah flees to an isolated cave so the king won’t kill him. How does God keep him alive? He sends ravens to feed him. Ha! Ravens! Why ravens? Why not just make the food appear for him? Why not have some kindly person (who happens to have a good supply of food) stumble upon him? If I were writing a book, I would not have ravens come feed him. There are so many examples of God doing such unexpected things, it is really incredible.

On a more practical note, we can apply this to our lives. For instance, considering my current interests and passions, I’d like to find a position where I can teach economics. But God doesn’t do things neatly. He doesn’t use Hollywood plots. His stories have lots of twists and turns, you never know quite where things are going. So I’m just going to hold on and see where God wants me to be. Drinking water from a rock would be far more exciting than drinking from a stream. I’m not saying we should just trust God and our lives are going to be far better than we can imagine. Instead of getting one job teaching econ, I might get three! No, I don’t think so. For example, instead of being an econ tutor, I’m an office manager at an aerospace factory. Haha, there’s an interesting surprise, never would have expected it. But that’s because God isn’t like us. He doesn’t think like us. I can’t tell you how He thinks because I’m one of us. But I think He does things that we’ll eventually appreciate. We may not realize that the bitter water we are drinking is water from the rock of God’s grace.

Secondly, the other aspect of this is God’s character, for lack of a better word. We like things to be neat and tidy. We like things that go with our preconceived notions. Nice people go to heaven. Bad people go to hell. It is that easy. Haha, actually not. All through the Old Testament you can see God overthrowing our neat notions, and the apex of this is the incarnation of His Son as a carpenter’s son. Esau was the oldest. Jacob got the birthright. And not only that, God didn’t just speak from Heaven and announce His toppling of human traditions, He used the deceit and sin of Jacob to accomplish His plans. He rejected Saul and chose David the shepherd boy to be the king of Israel. He sent glorious Nebuchadnezzar to the meadows like a beast of the field. He didn’t invite King Herod to His Son’s birth, but the shepherds got an invitation from the angels. Christ called the tax collectors and sinners. A tidy Savior would have refused to speak to the woman at the well. But Jesus offered her Living Water. A predictable God would have struck Saul dead on the Road to Damascus, instead Saul was struck blind for three days and given eternal life.

It seems ironic: God gives grace when we want justice, but yet when He metes out justice, we call for mercy.

We don’t like thinking of the thousands of people the Israelites slaughtered when they entered the Holy Land. We don’t like thinking about Uzzah who was just trying to keep the Ark of the Covenant from touching the ground and was killed for his audacity. This kind of God scares us. We want a God who will rain down judgement and grace when we decide. But that’s not how it works, God makes the choice.

That is what confuses me, if Christianity is the opiate of masses, why are the masses afraid of God? If religion was invented by people to comfort themselves in the midset of a vast, silent, random, cruel, mysterious universe, why is the God they created so vast, mysterious, and seemingly cruel? Why is it that in the Bible, whenever anyone comes near to approaching the presence of God, they fall to pieces? Isaiah cried, “woe to me, for I am undone!” He could not stand whole before God. His being trembled before the Almighty God. Moses was allowed only to see the backside of God. The God of the Bible isn’t a gushy, smiley grandfather who never gets cross and lets you eat as many cookies as you’d like. No, the God of the Bible struck Nadab and Abihu dead because they offered “strange fire” on the alter.

You see, we are surprised when God doesn’t offer everyone a free pass to Heaven, but when He sacrifices His Son to satisfy His perfect and inflexible justice, we are surprised that He offers this extraordinary mercy to common sinners.

No matter how you look at it, we’re going to be surprised by God so we might as well appreciate the unpredictability of our God.

I think the first day of summer is June 21st. I wanted to have Path of Grass published in the spring. So if I get it published on June 20th, that still counts as the spring. And it might end up being June 20th, I’m not sure.

I’m so ready to get this book out there…it is becoming very exciting! Much of the delay in publishing has been the time it takes to get the book from one person or one step to the next. My copy to the typesetter. The typesetter mails it to me. I give it to the proof-reader. My proof-reader returns it. I look it over again and send it back, and so it goes…Just a lot of steps that can’t be hurried.

Let me share with you one of my favorite parts from Path of Grass. This is also one of the oldest sections, I probably wrote it when I was 13 or so. It was the very first section I wrote that in the series of stories that became Path of Grass. There’s something about it that always surprises me, something that always delights me, and I’m left wondering how I could have written something that lovely.

My name is Adele.  But the other sisters call me Catherine, so I do not know who I am. My mother was French; my father was German. My father’s family was angry because he married a foolish French woman. After my parents died I was given to a convent and have lived there ever since. I remember the day when I was four years old. My Aunt Matilda pulled me impatiently through the streets and stopped at the nunnery door. She crossly straightened my little brown dress and tied the old shoes that were too big for me, and then a nun opened the door. My aunt at once became grown up and wouldn’t look at me anymore.

“This is an orphan; her name is Catherine. Will you take her and bring her up to be a good girl?”

“Please come in. I will go ask the mother superior.”

I was confused that my aunt lied about my name, but she gave me a sharp glance that made me afraid to protest.

We were led into a hollow-sounding, dark courtyard and made to wait a great while, it seemed to me. My aunt amused herself by rummaging through her small purse and looking at relics of the past stashed in it. She would not allow me the privilege of touching anything, so I wandered around the room and stared at the strange pictures of a woman holding a child, angels, and a man wrapped in sheets floating on clouds. At last another nun came in and spoke to my aunt for a few minutes. My aunt sounded angry and, after shouting a little, became satisfied. As I look back, perhaps she did not shout, but the vastness and emptiness of the room made her voice louder than it really was. My aunt smiled too sweetly at me and walked out. The nun took my hand gently and led me into another place. It was a long hallway, and I was afraid it would never end. We at last reached the last door, and the nun slowly opened it. It was a sort of chapel with candles lining the walls. At the very front of it was a statue of that same woman I saw in the courtyard pictures, smiling down at her baby.  The nun paused where we stood.

“This is where we worship God,” she said softly. I didn’t want to speak; the lady with the child seemed to be telling us to be quiet and just look at her. “This is where you will come also, to worship God with us. Do you know who that lady there is? It is the mother of Jesus Christ. He delivered His people from their sins by dying for them. He was perfect. He never sinned, but He bore our sins for us. We now pray to Him and His Father because His Father is now our Father. You used to have a father, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“But he died. Christ’s Father never died and never will. He is in Heaven, and he listens when we speak to him. Now, enough of that.” She turned around suddenly, as if remembering her real duty. “My name is Sister Clotilde. Let me show you where you are to sleep.”

She took me out of the chapel and down the hall about halfway. She opened another door that led into a very small room that had a little bed in the corner, a window, and a shelf next to the window. The walls were brick. I felt them, and they were cold.

I’m actually getting to the point where I enjoy my job. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never not liked it, and from Day One I’ve appreciated the challenge it has been. But there were several weeks where I’d come home every day exhausted and wondering when the chaos and madness would end. And I’m happy to say it is improving. There’s still a very long way to go, but I feel better about what I do.

I worked full time for a couple weeks in order to straighten things out. I’ve actually gotten to the point where I can do everything absolutely necessary from noon to 5, instead of having to drop things or come in early because I don’t have enough time. That’s a really good feeling! While there’s a lot that I can yet improve in the conditions around me and the flow of work, I’ve improved my own efficiency so much that I truly believe I cannot accomplish any more work in the time that I’m given each day without changing processes, moving files, etc…

It occurred to  me this week, as I was talking to my boss about some issues that weren’t being taken care of, that the market is driving me to ultimate efficiency. Being super-good at shipping, for instance, isn’t good enough. I have to become super-good at processing orders. Or whatever the examples might be. The market demands that I be my absolute best at everything that is my responsibility.

For a few minutes this seemed like a discouraging idea, “no matter how much I work, I’ll have more to do…” but I eventually rose to the challenge. I love challenges. I live on challenges. Seriously. I get bored and restless when I don’t have several enormously large projects to conquer.

It is an exciting idea to me now. How good can I become? And more importantly, is my very best enough? This probably proves I’m an utter econ geek, but I really do stop during my work and think, “I wonder if my marginal utility is equal to or greater than my marginal cost to the company.” And that’s my goal. I want to contribute at least as much to the business as I’m being paid for. And I know that there are some things I could do my best at that my marginal utility simply wouldn’t equal the cost. So that’s why we have to find the position where we can offer the very best to society.

So as a young person, and as an economics student, I find the market demanding and exhilarating. As Jeffrey Tucker (I think) said in a recent article, the market is about the future. Today might be a bad day. But in business, we just get some sleep and wake up with plans to make tomorrow better. The past has little relevance, the market can shift and demand in change in a matter of hours, and your business can go from the bottom to the top, or the other way round, in the same amount of time. Combine this crazy, ever-hopeful, uncertain, infinitely optimistic outlook with the demand for only the very best, most efficient work and you get the free market. And it is a wonderful thing.

Sorry folks, I’ve been rather non-existent the last few days/weeks. I was asked to work overtime, so I was working all day almost every day. Obviously that didn’t leave much time to do fun things like blogging. But now I’m back to normal hour, starting Monday, so I’m looking forward to having time for blogging, studying, teaching, and stuff like that.

I got my sisters hooked on Khan Academy, and they are having so much fun with Khan math that I decided to switch from chemistry to geometry so I could do exercises and earn badges and things like that. Can you believe I actually spent a whole hour last night doing geometry problems? I wish I had Khan math when I was little, I can just imagine how much fun it would be to go from 2 +2 to algebra with Sal Khan. As it is, I just have time for geometry.

I’m getting very close to having Path of Grass published, my typesetter is mailing a hard copy of the finished typeset version, I should be ready to send it to Amazon within a couple weeks. How exciting!!

More later…

So we finally got a table at the Berghoff and looked at the menu. I wasn’t terribly hungry, so we decided to get one appetizer, one main dish, and maybe something on the side, and we’d just split it. My dad wasn’t really interested in the German food, so we went with the seafood. I ordered a smoked salmon appetizer, he ordered stuffed sole, and we got potato pancakes on the side. When the plates arrived, my smoked salmon was served on a small wooden cutting board with pieces of salmon on a bed of lettuce and onions. My first thought was, “wow…that salmon is pink!” I inspected it closer and realized it was not cooked. Our waiter came back to the table and we asked about the salmon. He said it was not raw, it was smoked. But it wasn’t cooked. I guess there’s a very fine distinction between fish being raw and being smoked. But I knew one thing for sure: it was not cooked. Now this wouldn’t be a big deal for the people who have their hamburgers rare. But I’m really picky about this. I want my meat cooked. I hate making meatballs because I have to handle raw meat. At least I don’t have to eat them raw. So I sat there looking at my smoked (but not raw…lol) salmon wondering what I’d do. My dad tasted the salmon and said it was good. I was in an adventurous mood. Hey, I was in Chicago at this cool restaurant. I couldn’t walk out of there without even tasting the darn stuff. So I took a small bite, desperately trying to keep my mind off the fact that I was eating practically raw fish. And it was actually quite good. It did taste smoked. It had a wonderful flavor. And with the onions it was delicious. I think there were four or five pieces of salmon, my dad had a couple, and I had the rest…minus one bite which I just could not finish because I was so full. The lettuce which came with the salmon had this amazing vinaigrette dressing that was really, really good. And my dad’s stuffed sole was also quite good. It had little shrimp in it too. The first time I had shrimp was at Jekyll Island, and they were served cold with a cocktail sauce. I did not like them at all. But I liked them hot with the other cheesy, yummy, stuff in the, well, in the stuffing.

After dinner we went back to our hotel room where I sat eating fudge and watching Indiana Jones. I’ve heard a great deal about the show, but never seen it. At first I was intrigued by the oldness of the film, and at first I thought it was going to be interesting…but that was before the excitement started. For the next hour I was bombarded with these fantastical escapades and predictable last-second rescues from various deathly situations. We thought it would end at 9pm, so we watched until then. It kept going…till 9.15 when it seemed there would be no end at all, so I gave up on seeing the end because I knew what would happen anyways.

My dad spent about 20 minutes setting an elaborate system of alarms, quiet enough so it wouldn’t scare the life out of me, and loud enough that we wouldn’t sleep in all morning. As it turned out, we both woke up before the first alarm even went off. We were some of the first ones downstairs at the Mises Circle. It took us a while to find a good table because there were these giant pillars scattered around the room that would completely block the view from certain places. We claimed a couple seats at one of the best tables and started talking to people. After a few minutes some of our friends from the Rockford Mises Circle showed up. Our table rapidly filled up. And more came. It was a really nice event for me because I knew quite a few people, but not everyone. There were enough familiar faces that I didn’t feel completely lost but enough new people to talk to that it wasn’t boring or just like a reunion. It was fun getting to know others, and after Doug French made an announcement about our Rockford Mises Circles, all sorts of people wanted to talk to me, so that was nice.

I had heard several of the speakers the day before, but Jacob Huebert was a new speaker for me. I had heard Roderick Long at Mises U, but never had heard Jacob Huebert. He was amazing! A very bright, intelligent, and talented speaker. While some afterwards were talking about how depressing his speech was, I found it very inspiring and yet realistic. It is easy for me, as a young person, to be swept away by grand and unrealistic ideas, so it is nice to have a balance. And yet we can’t give up on liberty, we can’t just surrender and ever try to achieve more freedom.

Lunch was delicious, and afterwards there was a spirited Q&A with the speakers. The question of immigration came up…and never left. I think nearly the whole time was spent discussing various aspects of the immigration debate, it was quite interesting.

Afterwards we stayed for a while. And stayed. And stayed. By the time we left, the only others there were Mises staff members clearing up the book shop and the recording equipement. We consulted our train schedule and found we could catch a 3.30pm train, and we were so ready to get home we didn’t stop for anything to eat. The train was packed when we got there. It took us some time to find our seats, and it was sweltering inside. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long for the train to get started. However, it stopped at every little place along the way, so it took forever to get back to Harvard. But at last we got there, and discovered it was a beautiful day. Warm, sunny, springy, lovely. I got to drive all the way home, and we survived, as this blog post is proof of, and spent a couple hours filling the family in on all that we did.

So that was my Mises weekend