I recall about a year ago, I wrote a post entitled “How Blogging Has Impacted My Life” for another blog and received a similar post from Ochuk. My post has been removed, as the blogger is doing some restructuring of their site, but my recollection is that I concentrated on the friends I have made, the Bible I have read (and blogged), and the discipline I have learned that keeps me ever wanting to grow in my knowledge of that which most delights me.

If I were to write this same post today, all of these things would be mentioned, but I would include a thing or two about the comparative value of silence over a tasteless joke, the joy of reading that I have reclaimed, the wide variety of viewpoints that I have available to me and now a chance to attend the 2005 National Conference: Suffering and the Sovereignty of God.

Attending a conference like this is something I thought would never happen. Attending a conference of this scale seemed to be something out of my reach. Imagine Joni Eareckson Tada, Mark Talbot, David Powlison, Steve Saint, Carl Ellis and John Piper all speaking at one event! And who has been invited to go? Me. The least likely candidate. I may not be the newbie of the blogging world, but I’m certainly no Jollyblogger. I’m just an average guy who was granted a taste of the excellence of Christ and now seeks to share that same taste with others. Does that qualify me to attend this event though? No it doesn’t. But then I am woefully unqualified to have been granted a glimpse at the supremacy of Christ as well, and yet here I am.

So I’ll be spending a weekend in Minneapolis this October along with the one guy that every blogger wants to meet. No, not Phil Johnson! The man of the hour is one thing. The perennial man of the blog is another. I’m not referring to Hugh Hewitt, either. I’m talking about one of the bloggers that I actually would like to meet. That person is none other than Tim Challies.

I believe it was John Madden who once said that the team that scores the most points usually ends up winning the game. That’s usually true in football, but not in the world of blogging. I am exceedingly grateful for the opportunity to live-blog this conference and will do my best to be found worthy of the call… er… e-mail.

UPDATE: LIST OF SPEAKERS IS NOW LISTED