God did bless my writing on Saturday. Although I took a two-hour nap in the middle of the day and absolutely had to go to sleep at 11:00pm, I managed to finish another 9.5 pages, bringing my total to 56.5 pages. More importantly, I wrote the entire section for the 1970s, meaning that I only have two and a half decades left to complete. By Friday, when I leave for the last Intercollegiate Studies Institute conference of my year as an Honors Fellow. My project is due the Monday after I return, and right now I don't know how I will find the time to finish it. However, I am confident I will. 56 pages and a 16-page annotated bibliography ago, I was terrified even to start.

This day is the reason for my confidence. Easter. A man died for me, and then He rose from the dead, because He was also God. But He died as a man, with a man's thoughts. I will never know exactly what His thoughts were at that moment, even if He tells me in eternity, because I'm a different person, living in my own soul. I won't know how much He suffered. That scarcely matters, however, because He didn't die so that we could suffer. He died so that we could live to our fullest capacity as humans. Jesus Christ fills all our needs, so that we are free to grow.

The thing is, a full human life involves suffering. How do I put this into words? My saved soul is clean and new, but it is living in a world impaired by sin. Soul and body are inseparable. Soulish peace may involve physical or mental pain. I accept it gladly, for the sake of the hope that is to come.

I am confident in the results of my project, because at this point in my life I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. My project needs to be written, and I am the one who can do it. Like Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, I "feel God's pleasure."

Words have tremendous power. God created a universe with His. Every time I write a paper, a story, or an essay, I commit an act of incredible timerity. I ask God for some of His words. People have killed because of words, after all. Since I know their power, I need to believe deeply in the ones I use.  ¶ 4:11 PM