Repost: Edits

Every other week my blog will feature a reposted work. I had been a contributor on two different sites that have since closed or no longer include blogs. I will be reposting pieces that had originally been featured on one of these two sites.  

This was originally posted September 30, 2011

This post was written about the process of contributing to the advent devotional Our Savior Come. 

Writing about writing seems weird to me. I’ve also done it before when my personal deadline for posting a blog was long passed.  It feels a little like cheating, filling space just to check it off the list. (For example, filling a page with “I’m writing now.  I’m writing now".)

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Bible Binging

My wife and sons were gone this past week.

As I was preparing for my upcoming week up bachelorhood, I remember thinking, “I can binge on my bible reading.”

I’m trying to read through the bible in a year again and it’s not going well.  I started in October and was way ahead when November rolled around. Then the inevitable happened: I hit Leviticus. Needless to say, I’m way behind now.

So I thought, maybe without any of the other wonderful, but time consuming, aspects of family (like kids to feed and put to bed) I would have ample time to sit and power through several chapters of divinely inspired holy text. 

Almost immediately I realized how foolish this sort of thinking was.  We’ve turned into a “binging” culture, and that’s not a good thing. Typically we’ll binge on TV shows or movies, watching a season or two of our favorite show in a weekend.  This approach to consuming media isn’t necessarily good; it’s just what we do.

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You, Pretend

Sometimes I sing to my sons when we put them to sleep. If they are upset or restless I’ll try to soothe them with a children's church song. Over the years, Isaiah has picked up “Jesus Loves Me” and a few other songs and sometimes asks for me to sing them. I think it’s good for his developing theology to know of these types of arguably trite, but true lyrics.

The Story

A few months ago, we were still in the Midwest and my office was still connected with our kitchen. Having one’s office in the same space as one’s home was a blessing and a curse. As any Student Affairs professional will attest, the layout makes boundaries difficult. On this particular day, I had stepped into my office to accomplish minor task. I don’t remember what it was and it may not have even been directly work-related. More than likely I was responding to a short email or checking Facebook. Maybe I had remembered an interesting or clever observation I’d made earlier that day and I was taking a moment to post it on Facebook so all my friends could tell me I was funny. To set the stage here, the bottom line is:

I was busy, but I wasn’t doing anything important.

…In walks Isaiah.

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