“What makes for a powerful encounter with God? Power filled life-altering encounters with God.  Do you long to experience that kind of power? I’ll confess, I find myself mixed with awe and wonder, as well as doubt and a fear of disappointment.  And I wonder what this does when and if I approach God in prayer.” Br. Todd Blackham looks to the examples of Job and Bartimaeus for a lesson in that posture of hopeful persistence with which we are to seek out encounters with the living God.