PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

November 13, 2024

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Back in September I had two musings that focused on The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer.  It was Shermer’s thesis that the brain seeks to find patterns from the sensory data it receives and then infuses these patterns with meaning, intention, and agency.

Sometimes I think my brain works overtime trying to connect the dots of the sensory data that it receives.  Let me give you a recent example.

For many years Diane and I have subscribed to Reader’s Digest fiction selected editions.  The final selection in Volume 5 2011 is The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas.  The story takes place at the capital of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the eighteenth century.

The first dot that caught my attention was that much of the cuisine mentioned in the story resonates with what Diane and I have been discussing in a course we have been leading at the LifePlex entitled “Foods of the Bible.”  Important to the diet of persons at the time of Jesus was lentil stew.  This was one of the dishes offered to Eleanora Cohen, the main character of The Oracle of Stramboul.

A second dot can be found in the resume of the author.  For a year after attending Brown University Lukas was Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Tunis where he studied Arabic.  I am the International Foundation chair for the local ROTARY Club.  One of my functions is to promote giving to the Annual Fund which underwrites the Ambassadorial Scholar program.

Eleanora is described as being a special person who has been long expected to rescue her people.  She has a special flock of hoopoes which have been with her since birth.  Eleanora has an extraordinary memory and is able to connect- the-dots of the information she has absorbed.  Because of these two gifts, even though she is a young girl the Sultan seeks out her advice about a difficult international crisis.  Here is a third dot.

Following The Oracle of Stamboul there is an interview with Michael Lukas by one of the editors of Reader’s Digest select editions.  One of the ways that Lukas is using his experience and training is teaching creative writing to young children.  Lukas concludes the interview by saying, “One of the most important things I’ve learned from my students is that no idea is too crazy.”  Yet another dot.

Lentil stew, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars, a gifted child, and apparently crazy ideas are dots waiting to be connected.  Many years ago I read a poem of how Jesus had become so upset with the modern commercialism of Christmas that he had run away to wait a time when he might be reborn again in the craziest of Advents.  Many times through the Bible God chooses rather unconventional ways to accomplish His purposes.  Perhaps dots are a reminder that I should be looking for God to act in unconventional ways in the world today.

The dots could also be seen as a general reminder that when seeking solutions to our problems or when we attempt to connect the dots of our experience, we should sometimes think outside the box.  The answers we seek are not to be found in the ones we have identified.

Do you have any suggestions of how the dots lentil stew, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars, a gifted child, and apparently crazy ideas might be connected?

(This article was originally published November 13, 2011.  Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)