Plotting Hope

the Refreshing Winds conference has begun here in Winnipeg and that means that Brian McLaren and Steve Bell are the keynote guys for the conference. i don't want to sound too enthusiastic but these are 2 guys that have rocked my world in the last couple years so i've been more than a little bit excited that i could take part in this conference and listen to these guys.
it's ... a little bit of hero worship i suppose and i don't want to be like that at all but i just had to get Brian to sign my copy of "A New Kind of Christianity" for me. that book has caused me to think of my own theology a little differently and reinforced some things that i was already thinking in my own theology. i almost didn't go to ask him to sign it actually because it felt lame to stand there and to ask the question but my dear friend Laura encouraged me that it wasn't lame and then she stood with me as we both shook Bryan's hand and made some small talk about Winnipeg weather.
at any rate, Bryan wrote: To Ian, Plotting Hope, Brian McLaren. he writes that in every book i suspect, because my friend Sue also got him to sign hers and he wrote the same thing.
Hope has been a bit of a key word for me of late. it has been a big prayer for me personally but also as i pray for Wendy. hope is key in healing and we've waited a long time for resolution of medical ills for her. that remains as my daily prayer for her and for us.
some days i find it and some days i don't.
i guess maybe i'm plotting hope too.