Wisdom and Wonder

Show open from the Pathway Studios

Ben (speaker-1) opens the show live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper after a brief sung open.

Boova's testimony — grief over wasted years

Ben prompts Boova (speaker-2), addressing him as "Buba", to share what has been on his heart. Boova describes being stricken with grief over how much of his twenties he spent self-focused — focused on what was wrong with him and what wrongs had been done to him — and the shock of seeing how much the Lord can do in twelve awake hours. He wishes he could go back five years and tell himself that the day doesn't have to be a relentless pursuit of safety, just walking with God and watching him move.

Learning to hear the Father's voice

Dan (speaker-3) responds that at sixty he still looks back and asks "what took you so long," noting that the longer you are in the faith, the better you hear the Father's voice as the other voices fade. Boova describes his struggle with self-doubt whenever he senses the Lord speaking, and his new practice of submitting his whole day as a "day laborer" — walking in God's field for the day's wage of relationship — rather than a farmer planning twenty years out.

The benefit of being a Calvinist — and wanting more time

Ben (speaker-1) reflects on wasted time through a Calvinist lens: all the steps that brought you here were what had to be, and you can only look back in wisdom for having gained it. Boova adds that he is now invigorated rather than exhausted — wanting more time to walk obediently, and for the first time carrying a real fire for the hurting people around him to walk in the safety and surety of faith in Christ.

Don't overlook older believers — a musician's shifting theology

Ben (speaker-1) argues the culture is led around by twenty-two-year-olds while the things Jesus cares about haven't changed in thirty, three hundred, or thirty hundred years. He describes a songwriter he looked up (first commercially successful album around 35–40) whose theology is rock solid, and whose early music looked toward heaven while the later work looks toward heaven as a restored earth — a shift Ben calls biblically accurate.

Already in eternity

Dan (speaker-3) says a key to spiritual growth is grasping "I'm in eternity right now" — his body will do something different, but who he is will never end. That perspective changes how he sees people and circumstances, adds depth and mission, and makes stock prices, elections, and gas prices irrelevant.

Unmet expectations, timeframes, and not giving up on people

Ben (speaker-1) teaches from First Samuel (Hannah) that relational tension almost always comes from unmet expectations tied to unspoken timeframes: a wife asks her husband to take out the garbage meaning five minutes; he agrees meaning after his show or his call — his yes was meant to be a yes, but the unspoken timeframe turns it into a fight. Impatience on a short timeframe makes us give up on people — including our hopes for someone's faith — where an eternal perspective would stay on the shore watching the waves instead of riding them, referencing James on the double-minded man tossed by the wind.

1 Corinthians 13 — how you do it matters more than what you do

Ben (speaker-1) walks through 1 Corinthians 13, which he taught at home during a week his house church didn't gather: Paul's point that knowledge without love is nothing cuts Ben directly as a teacher, and all the edifying gifts — teaching included — will be unnecessary when Christ returns, so what matters is whether the work is done in love. "Love is gonna persist — faith, hope, love." Boova ties it to youth ministry: the kids rarely remember a lesson, but they remember he kept showing up — "they just remember that I was there." The segment ends with the complaint-line plug.

A Christian writers' conference — finding the Rabbit Room

• Can a Christian be an artist without putting a cross in every painting?

Ben (speaker-1) recounts taking his oldest daughter, who wants to be a writer, to a Christian writers' conference after looking for an artist community that takes faith seriously. He describes discovering Andrew Peterson's Rabbit Room, which publishes Christian fiction from the premise that God spoke twice — in the Bible and in creation — and the freedom that gives artists: you can delight in what God made without putting a cross in every painting.

The loss of wonder — Katherine Paterson and Charlotte's Web

Ben (speaker-1) shares the conference's keynote by Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia), now about ninety, who writes for children because they still have wonder. Her Charlotte's Web example lands as his first takeaway: the doctor who marvels at the spider's web itself — how strong it is, the death-defying leap that strung it eight feet — rather than just the words written in it. Ben's resolution is to engage in active wonder instead of dissecting everything so he can explain it.

Poetry, hymns, and a Lewis–Tolkien play

Ben (speaker-1) describes the conference's singer-songwriter culture — earnest, obscure references, melodies too strange for radio — and the live power of hearing poetry and hymns read aloud: "an exchanging of words and ideas in a fresh way." On the final day the conference staged a dramatic reading of a hypothetical final meeting between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, recounting Lewis's conversion through Tolkien after walking away from the faith, their Oxford writing fellowship's mutual encouragement, and the hard break after Lewis's marriage to Joy, which Tolkien the Catholic would not acknowledge.

Scripture as story — delighting in the good and true

Ben (speaker-1) gives his second takeaway: the conference continuously expanded what it means to serve Jesus — to love him and delight in true and good things. He notes Scripture itself communicates mostly through stories of God's creation — even Leviticus's laws sit between human stories — and recalls a session tracing the narrative theme of floods throughout Scripture, warning only against reading it too technically or too woodenly.

Made to make — creating as image-bearers

Ben (speaker-1) gives his third takeaway: if God is a creator and we are made in his image, then making things — a table, a photograph, a meal — is part of our nature, not a distraction from following Jesus. He wonders whether his information-pushing work life leaves any room to reflect the Creator, and notes (addressing Dan) the joy of poor believers in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia who create games, songs, and drawings out of nothing.

Bible Project keynote and the state of Christian music

Ben (speaker-1) wraps the conference report: Tim Mackie (transcript: "Tim Acky") had spoken at a pandemic-era event, and next year's keynote speakers are the two Bible Project hosts. He found music he actually likes — earnest singer-songwriter songs that recognize God's goodness amid raising a daughter — a relief after finding radio Christian music a "wall full of noise," and he encourages listeners not to give up on faithful art.

Dear LFTP — the grandchildren who won't visit grandma

• Why is it that people always have time to go to a funeral but don't take the time to visit someone special while they're still alive?
• Is it fair to try to guilt grandchildren into visiting their grandmother?

Boova (speaker-2) reads a Dear LFTP letter: her 98-year-old mother has spent eight years in a nursing home, sharp-minded but frail; the siblings visit, but the eight grandchildren say they're too busy or can't stand nursing homes — and the writer asks why people make time for funerals but not visits to the living. The "Secular" answer advises taking relatives out for brunch and bringing the kids along to share the conversation. Dan says every funeral he's done ends with the family vowing to get together more and nobody doing it; Ben cautions against guilt-tripping — this is his own stage of life, four kids and no peripheral time — and argues guilt rarely changes behavior.

Dear LFTP — the wife who wears shoes indoors

• How do I convince my wife that our house is dirty specifically because of wearing shoes indoors?

Ben says they will do one more letter "that way, Mike can weigh in." Boova (speaker-2) reads a Dear LFTP letter from a man whose wife keeps wearing outdoor shoes — even after yard work — inside the house, asking how to convince her the dirt comes from the shoes. Mike (speaker-0) calls it a him-problem: the mess a diesel mechanic, construction worker, and tire-factory worker brings home dwarfs shoe dust, so he should chill out and get a Roomba. The room spirals into Mike's story of visiting someone's house wearing only his underpants after his work pants got too dirty.

Roomba mops, bidets, and the Secular answer on dust

The shoes-letter banter spirals: Roomba mops in the Costco catalog, bidet experiences at the Nagoya airport in Japan, and "Poseidon's kiss" jokes. Boova (speaker-2) then reads the "Secular" answer, citing the August 2024 issue of Consumer Reports: half of household dust is tracked or carried in from outside, and shoe soles carry viruses — suggesting a doormat compromise. The room mocks the doormat: "she blows right past that doormat."

Ceiling-fan dust and closing the shoes letter

Ben (speaker-1) says his wife sweeps the floor three or four times a day "in disgust." Mike (speaker-0) confesses he cleans only when the dust visibly accumulates, was recently shamed for not dusting the living-room ceiling fan in a year and a half, and argues ceiling-fan dust is "professional dust" — it survives the blades whirring all night, "holding on for dear life" like "seal team dust" — so of course the fan works better once cleaned.

Sign-off

Mike (speaker-0) plugs the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line, (515) 517-0085, call or text, and Ben (speaker-1) closes the show: "In the meantime, be faithful. It means God will handle the end."