Discoverers

I sold pest control for a few summers when I was in college. I spoke with thousands of people. I mostly spoke with them about class-five spider infestations. I loved to find out about people's lives and loved to learn things from them. One house that I got into was a man who was very well-educated and had an AMAZING library. I asked him if I could just look at his books. I started to spot some that I had read and many that I had not. He recognized my love of books and learning and he said: "I'll tell you what, if you want to read great book, read this one..." (and he pulled out a thick black book called The Discoverers. "This book changed the way that I saw everything in life and gave me a completely new set of glasses by which I see the world." I promptly bought the book and years later, I am finally reading it! In the intro I found this:

"Nay the same Solomon the king, although he excelled in the treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation, of service and attendance, of renown and the like, yet he maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only the glory of inquisition of truth; for so he saith expressly, 'The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out,' as if, according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide His works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God's play-fellows in that game."

- Francis Bacon (The Advancement of Learning, 1605)

I can't seem to get away from reading it. I love it. Every spare moment I try to get a section out of it and I find that when I can't sleep at night, I am lost in its pages.

I will most likely post about it again because most of my posts are because of things that I have been thinking or learning and that floating around in my mind.

This book walks you through the history of human discovery, highlighting the many "coincidences" that preceded them. It is interesting because it is as if providence led humans to discover certain things in the precise moment that God desired.

I believe that God finds pleasure in His children who search and seek to discover the world around them, and in so doing discover Him.