are you here?

Today I was driving back from lunch, and I was thinking of how much of what is written on the blog’s of the people of theRealZoo is really from their heart. I am so glad that God has invited me to be a part of His thing here. Maybe you have been reading along for sometime or maybe today is your first time. The thing that seems to stir in my soul is to say to you “you are not alone!” Thank you for stopping by from time to time. For those of you who have left comments, thank you, because by your comments you have given us comfort that we are not alone. If you have never made a comment I want to invite you to join the conversation even if it is “hey.” Comments can be anonymous, which is one great thing about this space, all are welcome. May you continue to search for what it is that yearns to be known, and May His face shine upon you today.

bringing Heaven to Earth

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Evil one. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. "

In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.

The question really is am I actively participating in the act of bringing heaven to earth?

checking my life lens

“Is the gospel God’s work in the world for us or is the gospel what God has done for me? Does it operate, to borrow an image from Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, as if this world is a movie in which God has appointed me as the central actor (or actress)? Or is it the work of God as a universal and cosmic thing in which we get to participate? More likely the gospel is the staged drama of God’s work and we get to take part; God is the central character.”

What is the gospel? Cover story article by Scott McKnight from http://www.the-next-wave.org/

What does this matter? Why ponder such theological issues? I think it matters a lot for someone like me who can be very self-centered. It is so easy to try and look at life through the cracked lens of “what does God want me to do?” rather than the holistic approach of “where is the work of God and do I want to participate?” I guess it might be time to change the prescription of my way of looking at life. Just as with any corrective eye solutions, regular examinations are essential, so must the eyes of my soul be tested that I might regularly examine my way of understanding the Truth.

john carryman speaks

words from the past

Fear and guilt… Two words that as a child I knew too well. My fear was mostly of snakes. I remember having dreams as a child where my entire front yard was covered in snakes of all kinds. I had to make some kind of vine to swing across them in order to land on my porch to gain safe entrance into my house. This was probably due to my fascination with Indiana Jones movies. I loved the adventure but was terrified of the scary bugs, snakes, and spooky stuff.

Later in my childhood, my fear became tied to the loss of things around me. Around the age of 10, I noticed my parents (mostly my mom) constantly yelled at everyone. I began to sense that things were some how coming apart. The atmosphere of my house was like a war, a war with raging words like missles and grenades flying through the living room, dining room, and bedrooms. I began to fear that, FAMILY, the only thing that I had known as true and good was tearing a part. And there was nothing I could do about it, as much as I thought I could. My situation was hopeless.

And then at age 12, it happened. My fear turned to guilt. My parents separated. And everything in me said that I was to blame. In my world everything evolved around me. So if my family world was crumbling down on the outside so was my little spirit on the inside.

I share this story because it is real. It is my life. It is how I came to know fear and guilt. Wrong as they are, this is the point of reference at the center of me.

In her recent book, Christ the LORD, Anne Rice captures the atmosphere of the child Jesus growing up in Alexandria, the most prominent city in first century Egypt. In the last two chapters, in which I finished last night, the boy Jesus finds about his past. He comes to realize that because of the situation surrounding his birth, over 200 children were killed by a paranoid Herod. At the age of seven, Jesus was surrounded by war as the Roman Republic fought to become the Roman Empire. In every city, children lived in fear of the soldiers knocking on the door demanding the life of the children in the house. Jesus knew fear and guilt as a child.

Maybe now when I read the “red letters that speak to fear and guilt,” I realize they came from a child who became a man - who became the greatest Rabbi the world has ever known, and I will remember that He struggled though the emotions of strife and even death to find hope. He came that we might find, as he said, “this life.” Hope is alive.

wrestling with the unknown

Many thoughts of transition have raced through my mind these last few weeks. Could there be something happening that I am not aware of? Is it possible that there are things set in motion that have been a part of the sacred story that only now will come to pass? Where is the thin line of being alert and sober to the events and things around you to let them unfold as they may and crossing the line to control or twist them to the way I wished they would turn out?

Where do my thoughts end and divine inspiration begin? Which ones do I pull the trigger on? Sometimes I think of Peter who was so zealous for the LORD and in so being did some foolish and unreasonable things. Yet it was his passion for the truth that led him to act. I am thankful for the LORD who forgives those like me who get all excited and run off to do silly things. Yet He is always faithful to remind us where we can find him.

Why does he keep sending people and money to help us along the way when it doesn’t seem like we are on any kind of path? This is crazy! It feels like being on life support as though we are in a spiritual ICU where there are moments when we fade in and out of consciousness.

Thank you to all the messengers who have brought gifts of encouragement to us along the way. You have no idea how sustaining your words are to Darla and I. May you sense His presence as you inhale and exhale deeply today! Amen.

Narnia - through the eyes of a child

Good morning to all, yesterday I took my family to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, of the Chronicles of Narnia. As a boy, I can remember watching a cartoon version shown on regular TV around Christmas time. In that version, the demons and henchman that worked for the White Queen terrified me. And when they shaved off Aslan’s hair, it was though a dagger was driven through my heart. Terror gripped me like a sudden heart attack. I can’t remember back then who I felt the most like, as a child I think we try to imagine who we are in the movie. Have we lost the art of finding ourselves in the epic stories all around us?

After the movie the girls asked who do you think we are? Needless to say we have a little Peter, a little Susan, some of Lucy, and even some Edmund. I was taken by surprise when my oldest said that I was most like the centaur who fought with Peter in the great battle. How humbling it is to know that my daughter sees her father as a champion. If I could only see myself that way, the simple eyes of a child.

Portrait of the Champion Idealist (eNFp)

I am usually not real big on taking these test but this one is scary close to my inner thoughts and feelings...

The Champion Idealists are abstract in thought and speech, cooperative in accomplishing their aims, and informative and extraverted when relating with others. For Champions, nothing occurs which does not have some deep ethical significance, and this, coupled with their uncanny sense of the motivations of others, gives them a talent for seeing life as an exciting drama, pregnant with possibilities for both good and evil. This type is found in only about 3 percent of the general population, but they have great influence because of their extraordinary impact on others. Champions are inclined to go everywhere and look into everything that has to do with the advance of good and the retreat of evil in the world. They can't bear to miss out on what is going on around them; they must experience, first hand, all the significant social events that affect our lives. And then they are eager to relate the stories they've uncovered, hoping to disclose the "truth" of people and issues, and to advocate causes. This strong drive to unveil current events can make them tireless in conversing with others, like fountains that bubble and splash, spilling over their own words to get it all out.

Champions consider intense emotional experiences as being vital to a full life, although they can never quite shake the feeling that a part of themselves is split off, uninvolved in the experience. Thus, while they strive for emotional congruency, they often see themselves in some danger of losing touch with their real feelings, which Champions possess in a wide range and variety. In the same vein, Champions strive toward a kind of spontaneous personal authenticity, and this intention always to "be themselves" is usually communicated nonverbally to others, who find it quite attractive. All too often, however, Champions fall short in their efforts to be authentic, and they tend to heap coals of fire on themselves, berating themselves for the slightest self-conscious role-playing.

excerpted from The Pygmalion Project: Volume 3 The Idealists, by Dr. Stephen Montgomery
Copyright © 1989 Stephen Montgomery
While the shy, seclusive Monastics [now called Healers] (Myers's "INFPs") devote themselves largely to cultivating inner purity, the high-spirited Advocates [now called Champions} (Myers's "ENFPs") turn their energies outward to investigate the public world and to develop their social awareness. Keirsey calls the Advocates "keen and penetrating observers," who "can't bear to miss out on what is going on around them." And he has referred to them both as "Apocalyptics" and "Heralds" because of their fervent desire to spread the news of their experience of good and evil.

Brimming with life, Advocates live more spontaneously "in-the-flesh" than Monastics, and at first glance they can be rather easily mistaken for Artisans. But more than simply seeking the excitement of new experiences, Advocates are interested in understanding the significance of things, and more than simply taking people as they find them, Advocates care about nurturing ethical and sympathetic social relationships. To be sure (and unlike the impulsive Artisans), Advocates are serious and conscientious in their relationships, wanting to nourish human potential and to awaken what they believe to be the latent morality in their fellow-men. In a word, Advocates are romantic in their relation to the real world, seeing high drama in their quest for life, and hearing an irresistible call to enlighten those around them.

Although Advocates are thus more public-minded than the Monastics, and more confident in dealing with people, they are only slightly more directive in their private interactions. Like all the Idealists, Advocates want harmony above all else in their personal relationships, and they are far more inclined to "re-form" their loved ones by presenting them with information than by giving them commands. Nevertheless, Advocates can be quite coercive in their role-informative style of defining relationships. Advocates delight in free discussions of current issues -- they burn with convictions and bubble with meaningful details, yearning to unveil what they believe to be the "true story" of significant events. At times, Advocates will champion a cause with such zeal that they can be carried away with the rightness of their position, and find themselves preaching to their friends and loved ones, trying fervently to convince them of their point of view. Indeed, in their penchant for investigating and reporting "the truth," Advocates can quite easily strain their relationships by reading too much into their loved ones' behavior, by over-interpreting the hidden meanings in their loved ones' words, and by overstating their own romantic views as apocalyptic revelations.

All I can say is this is crazy! Its almost like looking in the mirrow translated into words.

what are you looking at?

"To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.”

Henri Matisse
At first glance this quote really grabs my attention, but the more I think about it the more captured I am by its simplistic yet profound meaning. Here are some questions that I have wanted to ask:

What does it mean to be a family?
Why do we work?
Why do we laugh when it hurts?
Can I really let go of the fear of pain?
Are my children going to have to suffer through life?
Why can’t I find the movement of Jesus?
What are my children learning in school?
Why do some people hide from their shame?
Can AIDS be cured? What is church?
Why does violence run so rampant in some areas and not in others?
Why don’t people say what they mean?
What if the rules are broken? Who made the rules?
Why do children from age 5-8 ask so many questions?
What would it take to look at things as though I have never seen them before?

It is good to have space that one can explore the questions that haunt the soul. May those who read these words find a still place to humble themselves before the One who created all things in Heaven and on Earth and bring to the light that which has been in darkness.

the lost art of forming the family circle

“The room had been cleaned, the floor swept and beautiful rugs had been put down, rugs covered with flowers woven into the wool. We were told to sit down and listen… I remember now that we had gathered for this purpose before… We made a big think circle.. I crossed my legs, as were the rest of my family… Mother spoke of grandfathers and grandmothers who had married and gone on… Both the men and women had been repeating what she’d been telling, in order to Remember it.” Boy Jesus age 7
Excerpt from Christ the Lord by Anne Rice

I copied this in my journal on November 9th. It impacted my soul when I read it. Something deep in me connected with the imagery of a whole family gathering together to share their story, all of it, the good, the bad, and the unspeakable. I have not blogged about it until now; for fear that it would only be a good idea and not a reality for my family. Today I am writing to celebrate that the story has come full circle. Sunday night the Winn family came together in the middle of the living room floor and began to share our struggles and pains as we grow as a family. Each one of us shared from a place that may have been a little awkward at first, but came easier as the night grew. Something special was given space to grow.

In the middle of our time together one of the little girls said with eyes beaming in delight, “this meeting is GREAT! I love our family!” Then the other one said “telling our stories is good because we can all know where we are coming from.” I couldn’t have explained it better myself. My Father in heaven must know the inner desire of my heart to grant us this precious gift. His will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

We are reclaiming the formation of the family circle… a place where hearts, fears, and hopes come together in the sacred place of the story of us. By gathering this way, we are entering into a tradition that is as old as the earth itself. By redeeming the practice of remembrance, we are remembering… The Lord has done great things for us!

who is john carryman?

I have been intrigued by a man who has been traveling down a main thoroughfare near my house over the last month or so. He walks alone carrying his pack. He appears to be homeless. Each day I have wondered what would it be like to walk in his shoes. A few days ago I blogged about "the tunnel" which was stirred by a journal entry that I sketched out depicting a tunnel and in the image there was a man traveling into the darkness. I guess this painting is my response to the image that has been wrestling with my soul.

Filled with compassion, my daughters named the man carrying his bag John because they wanted to pray for him. I have been thinking about interacting with him, but I have wondered if I would be intruding on his way of life. I would love to know the God he knows. Maybe his god doesn't have a name, maybe he does. If I were to give him some money would that be ok? How would he receive the money? I don't think of him as a charity cause but rather I genuinely want to enter his world to see how it looks through his eyes. Maybe he knows the same God that I know but knows him more intimately than I do. Maybe he completely trusts God to supply his every need and I only trust God to fulfill my wish list and to answer my questions. Who is John the carry man? What truths does he carry in his bag? What could I learn from the man who has entered my world and captured our thoughts and prayers? May the LORD who holds all things guide our paths, and may his face shine upon us.

who am I missing?

I have often thought that there is something missing in my life. It is one of those things like a vacuum in a place where you know there should be something of great value that extends beyond temporal satisfaction. Over the last few months Darla and I have been searching for what seems to be eluding us – relational community. Is it possible that it could be right there in front of me? Is there someone or a group of people that are so desperate to hear our stories and for us to know theirs yet I have neglected them or looked right passed them? How can I be so short sighted? In looking for souls to connect with I have failed to see the love in their tender hearts?

Why is it that I am brought to this same frame of mind once every couple of months? Oh that my heart would be changed to think of them everyday in ways that they become the real community that I am intricately woven into with my heart, soul, and strength. Praise be to God that I have not had to lose one of them to come to this place of sensitivity and awareness that they are my first community, my precious ones, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, the ones that call me daddy.

where are we going? who are we becoming?

Last night my wife and I were discussing what kind of community of faith we see ourselves becoming a part of. This question was prompted by my 6 year old asking the question "when are we going back to church?" I told her that we were learning what it means to be the church where ever we are and where ever we go which means to love one another, share our stuff, and be kind to those who are in need. She said she missed learning about Jesus. I thought to myself, heck, I am still trying to learn about the real and difficult things about Jesus. Our conversation ended as we arrived at the store. My wife said maybe we aren't doing a good enough job in relating that learning about Jesus is not about knowing the stories, but living a way of life according to the truths behind the stories. But for all of her (my daughter's) life, all she knows is the church as we know today.

This morning I recieved a newsletter from theOoze by Frank Viola entitled AN INTERVIEW: with a Modern-Day, Sunday-Morning, Church-Going Christian. Wow! What a great narrative that really captures the desire in my heart about what a community of faith can look like. My hope is that one day the people of the realZoo can grow into a group of people who are living life together encouraging one another though the chaos.

finding yourself in a huge tunnel

“At last we embraced the gates (of the Temple in Jerusalem), and to my surprise found ourselves in a huge tunnel. I could barely see the beautiful decorations all around us. The prayers of the people echoed off the roof and the walls. I joined in the prayers, but mostly I just looked around myself, and felt the breath taken out of mine again, just as surely as when Eleazer had kicked me hard and I couldn’t breathe.” – Excerpt from Christ the LORD by Anne Rice in the person of Jesus age 7

Thinking of the immediate surroundings of a tunnel is very easy to fall into by focusing on the fact that you are surrounded by darkness. Maybe the bigger picture here is that a tunnel is a pathway, a gateway from one side to another. It is a location of transition as you move from one place to another. You enter one side but when you emerge on the other side the conditions and environment may have changed completely.

In the case of the tunnel at the gate of the Temple, the difference is when you enter the gate of the Temple, you are leaving the world and all its expectations and you are moving toward the Temple which in the early 1st century was considered the very dwelling place of the One True God of all things.

Did they move in and out of this location of transition – the tunnel of the gate of the Temple – with the idea that it was better to be “in” rather than out? Obviously the Jewish people thought it was good to be “in” because they would travel for days and risk their lives just to get there. Why did Yahweh bring these people to this ideal that it was good to be “in” the structure? When later on He would illustrate that people would enter “in” to a place of worship that was not built by the hands of men?

What did it mean to the Hebrew people when they sang the Psalm “The LORD shall preserve my going out and my coming in from this time forward, and even for evermore?”

Why did Jesus say things like I am the way, and I am the gate? What did that mean to the listeners of the first century? Surely that must have had an impact on them culturally because these were symbolic customs they had grown up with all their lives.

What does the tunnel of the Temple gate look like to day, if the Temple has become people of Yahweh?

Mending the broken and shattered

Yesterday was truly a Real Zoo kind of day; I say that because on 3 separate accounts I was privileged to be trusted with 3 soul level conversations. Dealing with doubt, fear, and insecurities, I found myself in the middle of real life stories. Being trusted with the intimate yet broken details of some of my close friends is a great honor one that I do not take lightly. My hope is that maybe by speaking out their doubts and fears they are somehow following through in what the healing Spirit of Yahweh is bringing them through. Engaging one another at this close heart felt level, I believe is the scent of real community the kind that transcends the pseudo-community we have accepted as the norm but leaves us feeling empty and alone.

I wonder what the writer of James was getting at when he penned these words:
“Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.” Maybe my catholic brothers and sisters were on to something in the ideal of confession, but maybe it goes further in that we are all called to listen and to speak the difficult words from our souls to one another so that we might not me separated from the Way of Life that was completely fulfilled in the life of the Man from Nazareth.

So to my brothers and sisters who might be reading these words, may you find yourself emerged in the mending process of the broken and shattered pieces of your life and in the lives of the people of the world around you that we may all know the healing name of the One True God.

A new book from Anne Rice

When I came across the news that Anne Rice author of the Vampire Chronicles had written a book about Jesus, I thought I was going to fall out. Needless to say my wife bought the book from Barnes & Noble this week and we are eating it up. I came across Anne's blog this week, here is what she had to say about the new book:NOTES FROM ANNE ON CHRIST THE LORD: Out of Egypt

October 28, 2005
"Dear Ones,
Tomorrow, October 29th, I leave on my book tour for the promotion of Christ the Lord. So far, the reception of the book has been quietly astonishing. Reviews have been far more kind than I ever expected, and the the talk on the internet is far greater than I ever imagined it would be, if I imagined it at all.

Let me make a few statements before I leave you for an extended period of meeting my readers face to face. First off, there is much misunderstanding about this book floating around, and misinformation about me.

This book, as I've already explained, is a sincere attempt to bring to life in fiction the world of Jesus of Nazareth, whom I believe, is the Son of God. The Four Gospels are definitely the main framework for the story, the main source for it, and the firm structure into which any fictional liberties are carefully placed. Use of the Apocrypha is extremely limited in this novel, and the reasons for the use of early legends about Jesus' childhood is fully explained in The Author's Note in the book.

I do not have any particular interest in the gnostic gospels. They do not figure in this book at all, as far as I know. Also I have not written anything at all resembling the Da Vinci Code. I thought the Da Vinci Code was a scream.

Regarding my return to the Catholic Church in 1998, this had nothing to do with my husband's illness, as he did not become ill till four years later. And it had nothing to do with my own illness in 1998 which happened afterwards.

My return to faith is described in The Author's Note as well. It was not something that happened over night. It came about over a period of years.

I make these statements because as I check out the blogs at night, I'm amazed at the momentum of false statements about me and the book and the opinions generated by these false statements. There is something frightening about seeing the same mistaken assumption repeated over and over again from blog to blog. Of course this chatter will undoubtedly die down at some point, and it may or may not affect the fate of the book in the Public Square. Whatever the case, if you've followed me this far, let me ask you to be open minded about Christ the Lord. I am not exaggerating when I say that the book surprises people.

I'm very much looking forward to this tour for all the obvious reasons: I'll see my readers, hear their voices, experience their presence in positive and fortifying ways. And this publication is especially thrilling to me because my conversion was so intense and so total, and this book represents for me the pinnacle of what I have attempted in a lifetime of writing. Understand, I've never written anything without zeal. But I do feel that all my previous research and all my earlier writing was preparation for this.

Please do email me at anneobrienrice@mac.com with your comments on the book, or with any questions you might haave, or about anything really. Use the subject line if possible to give some idea of your reason for writing. I answer as much of the mail as I can. And the subject lines help me to keep it in some kind of order in my mind as I proceed. Be assured that I appreciate completely your interest in this book, or whatever interest prompted you to read this message. And I will be reading and answering mail on the road.

Take care and be well, and love, Anne." 

What Classic Movie Are You?

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

What does SAFE mean?

When people talk about a safe place to… what do they mean by that? Is it this is a safe place to hide from the evils of the world or a safe place to come hang out and be comfortable with some other people who are just as scared as you are, a place where you can avoid dealing with the issues in your life that are causing you to decay from the inside out? Where did this idea of church being a safe place come from?

When Jesus was with his group of followers I wonder if he told them, Now I want you guys to know that while you are with me you are in a safe place, a place free from trouble, free from pain, free from struggle and strife, a place of comfort and relaxing. Scanning the surface of the gospels I don’t see this kind of promise. In fact what I do see is the Great Teacher of LIFE bringing his followers into the most difficult and awkward environments so that they might realize their need of Him. He was always asking questions that made them think about their “inner stuff.” These questions weren’t aimed at trying to make people feel ashamed of their deficiencies, but rather to “go there” and face them head on trusting that in His presence mending the brokenhearted and setting the captives free was his deepest desire.

In light of this observation of Jesus’ life teachings, it could be safe to say that his idea of SAFE had a completely different flavor. A flavor that may be bitter at first but the result was sweet, sweet like grandma’s butter biscuit covered in home-style syrup. As a close friend of mine said recently let’s stop pushing the candy coated gospel according to snickers because it just isn’t so…

what is authentic community?

I have been reading M.Scott Peck’s The Different Drum – Community making and Peace. It is a story about the various forms of community that he has found himself engaged in over the years. It amazes me is that no matter what the environment is, we as humans usually enter social environments in a self-preservation sort of mode. What we don’t realize is that this self-preservation mode is the very enemy of forming genuine community. So the question then becomes how do I help to create a welcome environment where people can just be themselves? Maybe it starts with vulnerability.

What is vulnerability? It may be different for each person. Maybe it starts with an apology, there’s nothing more humbling than admitting that you are wrong or that you screwed up. For some people it is a big step to get to that step.

The next level might be examining our motives behind the issue. What is the question behind the question? Is there something about that issue that “hints” at something that reminds us of a previous issue in our life? What if we could acknowledge those “hints” for what they point to, and explore them to see why they seem to linger in our heart and mind. Coming to this level of vulnerability is not easy; rather it is a choice, a choice that leads to individual freedom and authentic community.

an inward journey

thousands of years ago a man set out on a journey. a journey that began long before he ever left his familiar place. for centuries people of all faiths have studied the journey of Abram or Abraham as he is later named. "lech lecha" is the name that has been given to this life study of a one's journey, it is worth spending time reflecting upon the truths contained in this life-lesson.

"lech lecha" is translated in the Hebrew language "go to you." a very interesting place to begin one's journey. it is a inward step before taking an outward leap. i have many times launched out before taking a moment to examine inwardly what is it that pushes me or propels me through life's path. yet now i find myself taking an inward glance to peek within the closed doors to face the fears and doubts that have prevented my journey to truly begin.

others have gone down this introspective path before embarking on life's journey. Henry David Thoreau said "I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what they had to teach; and not when I came to die, discover that i have never lived."

for Abraham the inward journey was to face his past, one that was full of family secrets and deceptions. Smashing his way into the truth, he discovered a True Voice calling him to now move out past what he knew as familiar, his county, his family, his childhood. The Voice propelled him to move in a new direction, one who's final location was unknown. a promise was given to Abraham that through his descendant all families of the earth would be blessed. [genesis 12]

maybe we can take a look inward facing what may be hidden from others, in doing so come to the end of ourselves to find the True Voice of G-d calling each of us to begin life's rich journey.

going to the zoo

we have been meeting together in various places, our homes, the beach, tropical smoothie, maclay gardens, but one of the best has been the zoo. There is something about going to the zoo that brings all kinds of people together. Families go, people young and old go, whether you are from the city or not going to the zoo is something that people do. why is it? often i have heard of people who have been going through a difficult time in their life one of the things they do is go to the zoo. why is the zoo relaxing? what are we drawn to about the zoo? what life experiences can we draw from the zoo?

a new conversation

all good relationships start with a good conversation. thanks for joining in this conversation. if this is your first time to conversations at the real zoo, welcome. we are excited that you have found us. one of the greatest ways to learn about the life is to ask questions and listen. so let's begin with a good question: how do we begin to ask honest questions about God without trying to answer them?