Promoting a Book, While Reflecting on Promoting a Book.

I contributed to a book again.

The last one was devotions for Advent, reflective readings for the Christmas season to refocus the reader to remember that Christ came to earth as a human baby.

The first book was uplifting in theme and overtly worshipful.

This second book is a little different than that.

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Bearing the Lonely

On Sunday morning at 4:22am, my wife and sons left for a month vacation. I’ll join her after three weeks and take a week of my vacation, but for three weeks, I’m alone.

After she left, my Sunday looked like this:

Watched YouTube and Netflix and Facebook.

Slept a little

Went to church

Moved some bricks (patio work).

Watched YouTube

Facebook

Played Hearthstone

Ate lunch [Pizza, followed by rum & coke]

Slept

Organized our storage room

Read some articles online

Cleaned up around the house

Worked in the patio

Played Hearthstone

Ate dinner

Watched Netflix

Facebook...

Watched Hulu

More Facebook

Went to bed

Sometime, late in the night, I realized that all my actions of the day (including going to church) were motivated by a desire to distract myself from loneliness and I thought, “Maybe it’s time to write that blog.”

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Repost: There is Glory

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 July 31, 2011

Aslan would say this is someone else’s story, but I think he’d forgive me for telling it.

The family I mentioned a few posts ago who recently met their son, Oscar, continues to stick in my mind. 

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Repost: Always On

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 July 30, 2011

Lately I’ve been pondering the distinct differences between the various roles in my life.

Specifically I’ve been considering the differences between my job as a live-in professional on a Christian university campus and my family life.  As a Resident Director I am in a Student Affairs/Student Services administration profession. Because I am at a faith-based university, there is an additional aspect of ministry to the job.  I’m not a pastor by any means, but there is a pastoral aspect to my job. Interestingly, the Resident Director position has been [incorrectly] understood as “the youth pastor who lives in the dorm.”

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Repost: What it Takes...

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 July 21, 2011

I recently found myself inadvertently taking a cue from John Eldridge and telling my son he “has what it takes”.

The Story:

During a run-in with some very stubborn marker caps I had directed him to hold the marker with one hand and the cap with the other.  Then I covered his hands with mine and took the cap off for him.  I wanted to show him the motion for taking a cap off, even if those particular markers were too tight for his little hands to operate. 

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Repost: Identity and Discovery

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 July 12, 2011

If you have been reading my posts, you know I care about language.  
Words matter.
Words mean things.  
It follows that names mean things and this is intriguing to me.  The Bible says one's TRUE name will be given when we meet Christ face to face (Rev. 2:17).  To discover and know oneself fully and to find peace in a name that fully encompasses one’s identity will be a wonderful thing.  I’d like to think that what we do on earth mirrors and foreshadows this in some small way. 

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Bedtime Story

Isaiah was crying at bedtime. 

His stuffed Puppy has a hole at the seam, which we said Mama could fix tomorrow, but he got worked up about it. I went in and lay down with him and talked to him. I sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “Step by Step”.

I asked him what happened last time Puppy had a hole, he said Mama fixed him that time. I talked to him about how Puppy was actually really old because dogs age differently and we've had Puppy as long as we have had Isaiah. How Isaiah picked Puppy to be his friend the first time he walked into our home in Bowman House.

Isaiah grabbed my arm and pulled it around his body and said,

“Stay with me Papa. Tell me a story.”

Once there was an….

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