It continues to amaze me just how perfect God’s handiwork actually is.

Have you ever thought about exactly how incredible human memory is? Through chemical processes we haven’t begun to comprehend, the brain can filter sensory inputs continuously, discard unimportant ones, and file the rest in an incredibly efficient manner.

Our use of memory, according to Ruben and Stewart in Communication and Human Behavior, Fourth Ed., is divided into two processes: recall and recognition. The recognition ability, which allows us to rapidly and automatically retrieve information related to our current situation, is astounding. This is why most of us don’t touch a hot iron – we know from past experience that it hurts.

While this may seem simple enough, consider this: topics like this are the exact problems undertaken by computer scientists with concentrations in AI. This is why colleges like MIT and companies like Microsoft funnel millions of dollars into research, and why continuous attempts to introduce intelligent software agents into our daily lives fail – nobody’s figured out how to teach a computer to learn.

Trust me, God is pretty smart. I’m constantly amazed with the intricacy of His universe and its processes.

One of the first things I worked on when I started this blog was try to decide which category I fit into at blogs4God. I went to all eight categories, read the cute little definitions on the top, surfed a few of the inhabitants of each category, and decided that I don’t fit neatly into any of them.

Too often, we tend to take a person and try to stuff them into a category they may not necessarily fit into. This unconscious profiling can hurt others (look what it’s done to airports in the U.S.), but I think many people still engage in gossip, finger-pointing, etc. It’s so easy to give somebody a title and then try to assign them to their place in the social hierarchy.

I don’t think God is very happy about this. The Bible makes it clear that God is love, and slicing a person away based on a stereotype of where they “fit” doesn’t seem to be a very loving thing to do.

Something to think about the next time you’re sizing up somebody in your mind. (I know, because I do it all the time.)

P. S. Seeing that I needed a category, I chose techBlogs because I have a feeling I’m going to go geeky from time to time, and if I chose anywhere else I might intimidate the casual reader. This way, people have some advanced warning.

I’m thrilled, because today I finished reading the Bible cover-to-cover. (Well, sort of – my Palm doesn’t have a cover.) I started last July by converting the chronological reading list at bibleinayear.org into a HandyShopper list that followed me around on my Palm. I took less than a year to read because I read more than one day’s worth every so often.

If you haven’t read God’s love letter to you from start to finish, I encourage you to give it a try. It makes it abundantly clear how much God loves you and wants to be a part of your life.

Now that I’m done, I’m not sure how I’m going to decide what to read next. I’m subscribed to Our Daily Bread in AvantGo, and I get a magazine from my church group called ec. One of these will probably become my guide for future study of God’s Word.

I missed the big chat over at signposts, but I stopped in afterwards and met a few charming people, including Darren of LivingRoom, and Phil of signposts. I got to thank Mr. Claybourn for being one of my first visitors, as well.

Phil pointed out what became today’s topic of conversation, a post by Jordon Cooper commenting on how many Christian bloggers are interested primarily in the institution of the church.

From what I’ve seen in my (admittedly limited) experience, most Christian bloggers don’t focus strictly on the church; in fact, many avoid it altogether. The ones I’ve read that do discuss church often do so on a tangent, or they only discuss how Christ works in their lives, without worrying about the structure – IreneQ is a great example of this.

The reason I’ve personally chosen to read Christian blogs is twofold:

1. I only have an hour or so to read and post each day.
2. Although there will never be complete agreement when it comes to politics, personal tastes, or anything else, Christians can agree on our “core,” fundamental values. That makes it easier to filter out many of the bad influences on the net (such as a blog or two I’ve come by where there’s more profanity than words).

So even though I’m only reading Christian blogs, I don’t feel like I’m missing much. There’s enough eclecticism, intrigue, and punditry in this little corner of the blogosphere. Opening the floodgates to everybody else might be overwhelming, at least to me, personally.