In a comment to the previous post, RVCBard asked some questions that interest me very much.

One question was:

"What does support and encouragement look like for you?"

In response to my statement that I can easily imagine people responding to what God says to hearts that are turned to Him, in a Christian context, not so easily in other contexts, she wrote:

"Could you be more specific?"

I'll try to give examples of what support looks like to me, but it's easier for me to say what it feels like. It feels like stopping in Rivendell on the way to Mordor, and people listening eagerly to my story, and caring about what has happened to me and what's ahead of me, and giving me some information and supplies that I might need. It feels like someone walking beside me on the trail, and sharing hardships, adventures and good times along the way.

Examples of what it looks like:
- Someone to talk to about where I've been and where I'm going, and showing friendly interest and asking friendly questions.
- Someone who is trying to do something like what I'm trying to do, and talking to me about it.
- Someone giving me information and ideas that I can really use.
- Someone doing something that I might have wanted to do if I had thought of it and could have done it.

More concretely, some examples I've seen were some books and materials that someone gave us sometimes in Richmond that helped us with Patty's Kindergarten class and helped me with what I was trying to do with children in our neighborhood.

Another example was when I was learning to work and walk with marginalized people in my community, and I noticed other people doing that too, and talking to me about it.

Another example is in help forums when people give you answers you can actually use, without making you feel stupid, and without scolding you for not knowing all the information they'll need in advance.

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I can easily imagine a Christian context for responding to what God says to hearts that are turned to Him, because I can relate it to Christian concepts of salvation and giving your life to Christ, and I've known Christians who seem to me to be turned to God, and moved to loving action by His words. I can easily imagine in what terms a Christian might describe the relationship with God that I'm thinking of. I don't have any ideas about how other people might describe it. I understand that "Islam" means submission to God, that could be a way of describing the relationship I'm talking about. I can imagine people being moved to loving action by words from the Koran or from the Hebrew scriptures or from any other scriptures, but I don't have any experience with that. I have some experience with that from the Hebrew scriptures, but only in a Christian context. I can easily imagine others besides Christians being moved the same way, but I don't imagine they would describe their feelings in the same terms, and I have no personal experience with any other conceptual framework for those scriptures.

For example, Baha'u'llah writes with intense feeling about Zion and Carmel, but I have no idea what those feelings are all about. I went through the Hebrew scriptures looking for something that would help me understand. I got some vague ideas about precious memories of peace, justice, prosperity and beauty, but I have no idea if I came anywhere close to what Baha'u'llah is talking about.