I was so encouraged by the emails from many of you when I let you know my dissertation would be on the belief in resurrection in the Old Testament. This month I was supposed to have submitted a much more detailed précis of my topic and a statement of my original contribution. However as I studied it more, I ran into a roadblock. What I originally wanted to write about resurrection cannot be supported from the Scripture, so I had to abandon that path. My second idea on this topic has already been written about by people much smarter than I am, so I cannot do that either. I went to see my Professor and he suggested I start looking for a whole new dissertation topic--rather a daunting prospect!

Before I take that drastic step I decided to take one last stab at what I can say about belief in resurrection in the Old Testament, and what I would write in a dissertation. I wrote up a few pages and sent them to my Professor to see if he thinks I'm on the right track. I have not heard back from him yet, and there is a lot riding on his feedback. I have invested a lot of time in research into this topic and do not want to start from scratch. But if I have to, then I have to. And I need to make the decision very quickly.

Would you pray for me? For me the hardest part of study is coming up with a topic that is relevant, but has not already been researched and written about. Usually something that is relevant has already been covered. What has not been covered tends to be the obscure arcane topics that nobody cares about (including me!)