The posts at Serious Thoughts Taken Not So Seriously blog offer a refreshingly honest look at the world. A wife, mom and all-around versatile writer living in New York, Kate Bortell’s posts frequently pique my interest because she provides an engaging and playful take on sometimes mundane topics.

As an example, her March 22nd post, “The more I learn the less I know”  (shown in a snapshot image to the left) offered an amazingly candid tale about her desire to read and understand scripture. As with many people who pick up the Bible and actually try to read it, she made a childhood attempt to do so, beginning in the book of Genesis. I’ll let you read her post directly for the details.

As I read through her post and identified with both her frustrations and her hunger for biblical knowledge, I found her tenacity inspiring. Craving spiritual understanding? With the proliferation of news stories focusing on Stephen Colbert‘s travails and the latest photos of British royals, why would anyone allow themselves to be distracted from this compelling news of the day? For Bible reading? (Of course, I’m being sarcastic.)

Now don’t get me wrong … from what I’ve read, Kate’s definitely not a holier-than-thou religionist who’s so totally focused on heaven, so she’s no earthly good type. No. But Kate zeros in on matters of the heart and that’s part of what makes her blog compelling.

When I read her March 22nd post, I was immediately reminded of a sonnet written quite a few years ago. I think I may have been going through intense personal struggles and wondering if I was ever going to be the kind of maturing Christian I wanted to be! I had been reading in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9 stuck out for me. It says:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

You’ll notice Kate’s post starts out the same way my sonnet does. “The more I learn …” (Great minds?) Actually, from my vantage point today, I’ve begun to realize that the more I learn, I realize how little I actually know … but how incredibly rich I am for the things I’ve been able to learn thus far! I have a suspicion if I live long enough to reach a hundred years of age, I’ll still feel the same.

And I suspect the same will be true for Kate. Seriously.