I had to go back for Be Yourself, Part 2, from Ms. Meyer, and the Pentecostal in me is glad I did. Her object lesson with the geode was really good. I wonder how many in her audience got it. Rather than digging for the gold, the diamonds, the crystal, the beauty hidden inside the plain facade, do they leave inspired to dig, or do they feel satisfied being spoon-fed and entertained by funny stories? It's been my experience that those who throng to the cavernous convention centers would leave disappointed if their funny bone had not been tickled, and wishing they had bought tickets to see Larry the Cable Guy, instead.

It's that "entertain me" mentality that has made Ms. Meyer and so many others famous and wealthy. From some magazine, I copied this observation - Historians of religion like to say that Christianity was born in the Middle East as a religion, moved to Greece and became a philosophy, journeyed to Rome and became a legal system, spread through Europe as a culture - and when it migrated to America, Christianity became big business.

That sounds awfully cynical, but I believe it's true. So much of our religion in America is about 90% entertainment. Note to self - WRITE DOWN YOUR SOURCES!

And in being myself, as Ms. Meyer advocated, I have to take issue with preachers who use the Moses on Holy Ground story, then claim people today cannot have Holy Ground experiences unless they're born again. Saul on the road to Tarsus had quite a Holy Ground encounter, if you ask me, and that was before his conversion, not after. J. B. Phillips, author of Your God is Too Small, would say her God is too small.

I'm re-reading the Phillips book and finding new ideas on every page. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 readings for me to get the full gist of a book, not because it's hard to understand, but because I can only absorb so much in one reading. This book deserves to be totally absorbed. Written in 1952, it is even more relevant today.