I haven't entirely disappeared. Only in bits and pieces, one of which is the bit (or piece) that blogs, I guess.

Actually, it's still here -- it's just been kind of quiet lately. I've been thinking. Sometimes thinking needs a sounding board, and sometimes thinking just requires a quiet corner. This has been mostly quiet corner thinking.

Old testament is still my passion, still what I love best and would still rather study it than even to breathe, but it may not be where I'm headed anymore. It's still very much what I want to do, but there's a strong compulsion in a different direction in which I may actually be able to do more in a ministry sense.

And nothing says I can't continue to study OT, even if I serve in another way. Right?

This is an uncomfortable sort of shift, this direction of thinking. I'm not sure I like it, but somehow, I think I may also be at peace with it. Doesn't make sense, I'm sure, but then when we're honest, not that many things really do.

My brain may be twisting and/or writhing for the next while; in the future, maybe my "quiet corner thinking" will need a sounding board and I won't be so blasted cryptic. (Whether it sounds like it or not, this is actually something deeply entrenched in the last post re: "gifts." I think there's something I have that God can use if I let him. I've just got to get past the fear and/or reluctance and my own personal stubbornness that won't.)