Love him or hate him, this is excellent reading of historical significance.
Today should be the day for my writing progress & goals report, but I may be AWOI (away without internet), so I’m writing this post early ad scheduling it for posting on May 2.
The book Reagan In His Own Hand: The Writings of Rondal Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision For America is a great book. I began reading it a number of years ago, got maybe 1/3 of the way through it, and stopped. Why? Because I found it very intense, and more politics than I wanted to read at that time. I picked it up again a couple of months ago and got back into it.
It’s still intense, but I was able to read the rest of it by choosing a manageable amount per day and read just that. The book contains typescripts of the drafts Reagan wrote mainly of his radio addresses from 1975-1980ish. He wrote these on legal pads, doing what we all do when we draft on paper. He crossed out and inserted. He reworded and moved things around. Some staffer must have edited it. Somehow, it all came together into a script that Reagan read on the radio.
The book includes some other miscellaneous writings. Some are from his early years pre-politics, some from time as governor, some drafts of campaign speeches, and I think one or two presidential papers. Always they were typed from Reagans own writings.
My only complaint about this book is that they typescript includes all of Reagan’s handwritten edits. These would be of interest to a researcher who wants to study Reagan’s composition style. For me as a reader, they were distracting, something I either needed to wade through and read or attempt to jump over and get to what the final version was. I mostly did the latter.
Whether you love Reagan or hate him, this book is good reading. If you hate Reagan, pick up a copy, read through it, get angry, and feed your hate. At least you’ll be reading historical stuff. If you love Reagan, well, what better thing to have than something written by him rather than something about him?
5-stars. It would be 4.5 stars if that were allowed, the 1/2 star lost for putting all the editing stuff in the typescripts. But it’s not a keeper. I don’t anticipate reading it again. Out to the sale/donation shelf it goes.
A series of 31 short, inspiring stories. Well worth the read.
In our evening reading time, my wife and I recently read aloud A Gift of Miracles: Magical Stories to Touch Your Family’s Heart. This is a group of stories about events in peoples’ lives where something unexpected and, shall I say, miraculous happened.
Submitted by those whose stories they are, the book is by Jamie C. Miller, Laura Lewis, and Jennifer Basye Sander. I assume they are editors of this, though they may have served as co-writers with some who submitted their stories.
The book contains 31 inspiring stories, typically three to five pages. These are very much like the stories you find in Guideposts magazine, though this is not a Guideposts book. While this is a faith-based book, all the stories are not outwardly spiritual. No matter. It’s a good book.
If you find this book, it’s well worth a read. Read one story a day for a month. Or two if you have the time. Or read it straight through. You will be inspired.
While I liked the book and give it 5-stars, it is not a keeper, as I don’t see myself ever reading it again. If this is in a series, or we find another like it, we will probably pick it up and read it.
Read in two groups of readings at least 10 (maybe 20) years apart, the speaks more of the reader than the writer. The book is excellent.
More times than I can think of, I start a book, become bogged down in it, and lay it aside. Or, another book catches my eye and I shift to the other book and set aside the first. Or, the busyness of life and cares of the world get in the way, resulting in my putting the book on the shelf and then forget that I had ever started it.
Such was the case with The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas. Now, this is a book that checks a couple of boxes on my likes list. It’s letters. Readers of this blog know I like to read published letters. It’s about a poet, a poet I knew a little about but whose poetry isn’t my favorite. I don’t remember where I got this book, though I’m pretty sure I picked it up used, though in immaculate condition.
It was more than 20 years ago that I started this book. I remember reading in it, liking it, and then making a presentation from it to Poets Northwest, the local chapter of the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas. That presentation was well received by the group, if I remember correctly.
But I set it aside when life got in the way.
Not long ago I decided that I would, in the interest of dis-accumulation in anticipation of a future downsizing, break up my collection of published letters. Scanning my shelves, I saw this book and decided I would finish it.
Dylan Thomas is an enigma among poets. That is, he is difficult to understand. He was undisciplined in life, unfaithful to his wife, unrestrained in his appetites, unable to budget and constantly begging money. His poetry doesn’t move me a lot, though some are good. Others who know poetry better than I do, i.e. those considered critics, consider him one of the great poets of the 20th Century.
His letters contain great information. He wrote many begging letters to various friends and patrons, asking for money. In other letters he discusses poetry. Many related to the broadcasts he made on various BBC programs, or scripts for others. It’s hard to explain everything Thomas was into.
I had left off reading about halfway through the book, in the year 1940. The letters are arranged chronologically from around 1932 to his death in November 1953. It includes letters back to his wife, Caitlinn, while he was on trips to the USA. Even though he made a large amount of money from his poetry and prose readings in the US, he was still broke due to overspending. He professed great love in letters to Caitlinn even while having affairs with multiple women in the US.
Reading these letters is sometimes painful. He was constantly dealing with money issues with those who would publish his poems and prose. He sold off his copyrights to make money, only to try to buy them back again. All this is documented in the letters.
If letters are your thing, these are well worth reading. If they are not, of course there’s no point in trying to find this—unless you are a Dylan Thomas lover, that is. Then it is well worth reading. The book printing is also excellent. The letters are well-arranged, and editor intrusions of footnotes and historical inserts are just about right.
I give this book 5-stars. However, it is not a keeper for me. I may go back and re-read some of the early letters, which I barely remember two decades after reading them. But otherwise, out to the sale/donation shelf it goes.
Me, in The Dungeon, the day after the heart cath, slowly getting back to normal. Anxious to get these miracle meds, have them to their thing, then get back to walking for exercise and to yardwork.
My post on Monday concerned the heart catheterization that I was scheduled to undergo the next day. went off without a problem.
Since Lynda is still not driving much in fear of an a-fib attack (which are fewer, less intensive, and shorter than before her heart ablation last year), we arranged for rides from our church folks. A retired man who lives near us gave us the early morning, 6:15 a.m. ride to the hospital. A woman in our Life Group gave us a ride home in the afternoon.
I enjoyed meeting my cardiologist for the first time in the hospital room. I’d had a virtual appointment with him that turned into voice only when something went wrong with the video function of the Google app. Other appointments were with his nurse practitioner. He did a good job explaining everything beforehand. Other hospital staff did their jobs efficiently and were friendly.
The procedure happened on time. The results were somewhat unexpected. I expected them to find that one or more of my arteries were partly blocked and they would put a stent or two in, requiring me to stay overnight. Instead, they found one artery 50% blocked, but not restricting blood flow. They also found another artery that was torn in a couple of places. My cardiologist said both of these could be treated with medicine.
So they kept me there for a couple of hours of observation, so I could come out of some of the effects of anesthesia, and sent me off. Lynda contacted the lady who would give us a ride home, and she was there around 1:30 p.m. and we were home around 2. She also brought us supper, enough for two nights, and a very nice banana split pie for dessert. Guess it will take a while for my blood sugars to return to normal.
As soon as I could, I went to the sunroom to read, and promptly fell asleep. I must have been a couple hours in my chair, the window behind me opened a little and a delightful breeze soothing me. Then I got up, went into the living room to my reading chair with the book, and immediately fell asleep. I woke up around 6:15 p.m. Lynda had heated the food we were given. We had a nice supper and dessert.
We spent the evening watching The Curse of Oak Island on the History Channel, then read until it was bedtime. I realized my right shoulder was hurting and concluded I had pulled a muscle, probably getting in and out of the hospital bed while trying to keep the skimpy hospital gown covering me. I was afraid that it might keep me awake. It didn’t however. I slept well and long, not getting up until 7:45 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Mercy posted the results of the heart cath. I copied and sent them to my cardiologist friend from high school. He sent back a short note that he concurred with my cardiologist’s diagnosis. I think. He texted me in medical-speak, so it’s hard to known.
Wednesday (when I’m writing this) was somewhat of a normal day. I worked at the computer in the morning, adding the last 800 words to my work-in-progress and declaring the first draft DONE. Took the afternoon to read and nap. No physical exercise. No driving. No need to fix food. Truly normal routines won’t re-start until Saturday. Waiting on a call from the pharmacy to say my meds are available for pick-up.
So heart cath #2 is in the books. The last one was in 2001, when they found nothing abnormal. Maybe the next one won’t be for another 21 years. I’ll be 91 at that time.
Edited to add on Thursday: I’ve done a little more research, and have one more report from my cardiologist. The torn artery has a name: Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, or SCAD. The causes are unknown, and the cure is unknown. It is NOT fixed by medicine as I understood it. The artery tends to heal itself. If it doesn’t, the cure is a stent or a bypass operation. Part of the reports were a number of links to Mayo Clinic info about SCAD.
Also, to better evaluate the condition of my abnormal aortic valve, the doc wants to do a trans-esophageal echocardiogram. Say that fast five times. That is not scheduled. I’m also to be referred to a cardio-rehab program. Waiting on those.
So, I’m not sure when I’ll be back to normal, if ever. Let’s hope that artery heals itself.
It’s strong, and still ticking, but something ain’t quite right.
I don’t think I’ve written before about the heart concerns I’ve had for the last ten months. It started last June 1, when we were driving back to Arkansas from Orlando FL. We stopped for the night at a hotel in Meridian, MS. After checking in and getting the luggage to the room—which involved a lot of steps but no heavy lifting, I took a drink of tap water, and almost immediately felt pains on my right side, in the shoulder, armpit, going down my arm, and on the right side of my neck and under my jaw. The pain started slowly, I think about 8:00 p.m., and expanded its territory slowly.
I know enough about heart attack symptoms to know this wasn’t good. But here I was in a strange city for the first time, not knowing where a hospital was. Lynda was very tired from the trip and was out like a light as soon as she got in bed to read. What should I do? The pain was obvious, and disconcerting. But I had no pain in my heart or on the left side. My heart wasn’t racing. I took my pulse as best I could and thought it was normal. I decided to not go to the ER, but to sit up and monitor it. I couldn’t find my low-dose aspirin (though I had it with me). I found my Aleve, which is aspirin-like, and took one, thinking it couldn’t hurt and it might help.
As I sat there at the small desk in the hotel room, reading, monitoring my pain, it didn’t seem to be getting worse. At times, it seemed to be lessening. Then it might get a little worse for a brief time then less again. This went on for two hours. I drank some water, got up and walked around in the room, and prayed a lot, and messaged our kids to let them know what was going on and to be praying. I probably should have gone to the ER as a precaution, but didn’t.
Around 10 p.m. I moved from the desk chair to an easy chair and read there. I found myself dosing and fought it. The pain wasn’t changing much, but with each cycle of lessening and intensifying, the peaks seemed to become less intense. At some point I dosed off. I woke up around midnight, and the pain was almost gone. I decided the danger had passed and went to bed. Lynda had slept through all of this. I fell right asleep, I think, waking up around 4 or 5 a.m. and having no pain. Not a bit of residual pain. When morning came, it was as if nothing had happened.
We continued our drive home with no further episode. Of course, I called my cardiologist right away. Why do I have a cardiologist? Well, some years ago I learned I have a genetically different (should I say defective?) aortic valve. It is constructed differently from the standard heart valve. It functions fine, but it’s not as it should be, not as it is in most people. Back in 2017, my doctor ordered a carbon scoring test, which showed some build-up on the valve. But he retired, and the follow-up was lost. My current PCP was aghast that this hadn’t been followed up on and referred me to a cardiologist back in 2020. That cardiologist had some tests done, all of which showed my heart was fine. The report was written in what I call “medical-speak”, but at one point it broke out into plain English, saying “Strong Heart Muscle”.
They re-ran the tests after my latest incident, found the heart still strong, but some parts of it not getting enough oxygen. It was a change from the 2020 tests. The cardiologist decided to do a catheterization, see if I have a mostly blocked artery and, if needed, put in a stent. That happens Tuesday, tomorrow, at the hospital. If they find no blockage, I’ll get out that day. If they put in a stent, I’ll have to stay overnight.
When I posted something about this on Facebook last week, my cardiologist friend from high school and college called me. He said this was nothing to worry about. He’d done lots of them in his career, even had one done on him. I read to him the reports in medical-speak, and he said yes, I would probably get a stent. Easy-peasy. He also said my heart was in better shape than his.
That will mean I’ll be on restricted diet and movements for a few days. No driving. No walking. I’ve actually had to cut back on my walking. When I walk uphill (and you can’t leave our house without walking uphill), I get the pains in my throat/neck. When I walk on level ground or downhill, the pains go away. So obviously something is wrong. I’ll miss two writers’ meetings because of that, one on-line tomorrow, and one in person on Thursday. I regret that, but that’s how it must be.
So that’s where I am. I wish I were 20 or 30 pounds lighter going into this, but I love food too much and have lacked the discipline I need to lose more. Maybe after this I’ll be more careful.
So, I’ll report back to you on Friday with how it went, earlier on Facebook. That’s assuming I’m not that one person out of a thousand for whom the procedure doesn’t go well. My cardiologist friend said not to worry about those chances, that in his long career he had only three of these not go the way intended. I said good, but I’d rather the odds were 1 in 10,000.
For the last three days, I have been working on our income taxes. No, it didn’t take me every waking hour during those days to complete them, but ours are somewhat complicated because of the two businesses we run (one my writing business). I completed them Tuesday, took Wednesday to proof them, make copies, sign, put s check in one, and mail them. Done for a year. I even created the folders and files for next year’s taxes.
Now, I need to get back to my writing, back to the two Bible studies. But it’s a beautiful day. Sunshine, not a lot of wind, heading to mid-60s for the high. I might get out and do some yardwork, or walk a little way. I have need to go to the post office and the bank. A year ago, I would have walked to them. But lately I’ve had some heart pain, mainly when walking up-hill. Actually, not heart pain, but pain at the base of my neck, in the front. So I’ve curtailed most of my walking until I have a procedure next week. More on that in Monday’s blog.
I feel as if I’m on vacation today without that tax thing hanging over me. I caught up on correspondence, both e-mail and snail mail. I filed a few things. I think I’m going to take the day off from writing, and will spend most of the day tomorrow catching up.
This is my first Bible study. It’s done fairly well but is by no means cracking a bestseller list.
In my progress and goals posts, I have mentioned that I was working on writing two Bible studies. They are actually part of a longer study having six parts. Let me explain.
Some years ago, when my co-teacher and I were discussing the curriculum for our Life Group, he said it would be nice to go through the events of Holy Week as a study, ending up on Easter Sunday. I took a look at it, and discovered there were almost 70 separate events during Holy Week. It would take us over a year to go through it all without combining some of the smaller events. Actually, more like two years when you consider the occasional Sunday when we don’t have Life Groups and the interruptions for all-church studies.
I decided instead that we would break this up into six parts and do some every year leading up to Easter, and going beyond Easter when necessary. I planned it all out, and I guess it was in 2019 that we did Part 1, on the Triumphal Entry and the events over Sunday-Monday-Tuesday of Holy Week. That was a bit long; I should have broken it up into two parts. Then there was the Olivet Discourse during the pandemic interrupted 2020. Last year was the Last Supper, and this year is Gethsemane, Arrest, and Jewish Trial. Next year will be the Roman trial, execution and burial. And the year after next will be Easter Sunday.
All has gone well. We get through this seven to fifteen lessons per year. The class seems happy. The pace is good.
At some point between last year’s series and this year’s series, I decided that, if I were going to write and publish another Bible study, maybe this series was what I should write. In January, when I finished two other writing projects and decided I’d do a Bible study next, I went to work on the Last Supper study.
I immediately ran into a problem, however. I had my teaching notes from when I taught the classes, but they were months old. They were suitable for teaching when the material was fresh but not for writing when the material was stale. I found I had to re-study a lesson again in order to write a chapter in the book. As a result, I made very little progress in January and February.
The first Sunday in March, we began the new part of the study, Gethsemane, etc. The day after I taught the first lesson I set down to write it in book form. The chapter came out very easily. In three days I had it written. At that point I switched back to last year’s study, and struggled along.
The next week, I decided to make that the pattern. Here’s what I’m trying to do.
Study on Saturday for the current lesson.
Teach the lesson on Sunday; come home and begin to write the current lesson into a chapter.
Work on and complete the current lesson chapter Monday-Tuesday.
Work on last year’s study Wed-Thus-Fri, hoping to complete one full chapter, but being satisfied with whatever I can do.
Since I started that at week 2 in the current study, it has worked well. I have all chapters in the current study complete through Chapter 5 and am working on Chapter 6. On last year’s study, some weeks I’ve been able to do a full chapter; other weeks I’m a little short of a full chapter.
As of April 10, I have written approximately 31,000 words in last year’s study, and 29,000 words in this year’s study. That’s substantial progress.
Yesterday, I went to The Dungeon after church and began writing, and found myself completely out of gas. Problems sleeping Saturday night had left me tired. I wrote maybe 300 words on the current lesson, and decided to pack it in. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done today and tomorrow, due to the need to finish my income taxes. But there’s no law saying I can’t take the entire week to write that chapter, and save work on last year’s study till next week or the week after.
I’m enjoying this writing. I don’t know how this will proceed. I know I’ll finish these two, publish them, then see if I’ll write more of them over the next couple of years.
I don’t know what came over me. Last Friday was April 1st. That was my day to write out my progress for March and goals for April. I had something on my mind for last Friday, however, and went with that, not even remembering what I had planned for that day. So here is last Friday’s post, being written on Tuesday April 5th. I’ll give progress through today.
Finish pulling my research notes for the church Centennial book together into a format and organization that will make the job of a future researcher easier. I made a good start on this, but didn’t finish, and will include it in April’s goals. I feel so much better about it, however. The notes are much better organized.
Continue to shepherd the church Centennial book to publication. …Almost certainly this will go to the printer in March. This did go to the printer in March and production is underway. The books are scheduled to be ready by the end of this week. The church is thinking for a May release.
Continue to plug along on There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. I’ll finish going through it this last time, getting critique on two more chapters, while waiting on beta readers. I’m not sure of the timing of the cover, but should know this week. Not much change in status. Still waiting on beta readers. I did meet with the cover designer. We worked through her drafts, selected the one to use for the final, and came up with the design that looks good to both of us. I haven’t heard from her since that meeting, but I assume she’s making progress. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to run chapters past the critique group until the cover is ready. At that point I’ll publish, whether I have beta reader feedback or not.
Make good progress on the Last Supper Bible study. I’d like to finish three more chapters in March. I accomplished this! I have fallen into a rhythm of writing, switching off between the two. I’ll have a blog post about that before long. This stands at approximately 28,000 words, a little more than half done.
Begin work on a Gethsemane Bible study. Since I’ll be teaching it beginning next Sunday, I hope to make my notes this time in publishable format, being essentially done with it by the time the study ends. And this goal was met as well! Today (4/5/2022) I finished chapter 5 (of 7 chapters), at 29,000 words. That doesn’t mean I’m 5/7th done, however. This will need lots of editing, as will the one from last year.
Attend writers groups. I expect this will be three online and three in-person meetings. Done, except one on-line meeting wound up being cancelled.
Blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. And I did this, not missing a blogging day.
…revamp the “Available Works” page on my website. I made a small beginning on this in February, and would like to make significant progress on it in March. I did some of this, though actually not until April. I’m creating sub-pages for my published works, making the whole thing more organized and, I hope, easier for someone to go through. I wish I had finished, but I’m very, very happy with the progress made.
So, now the goals for April. It will be a shorter month for goals, given that I’m going this late.
More work on those pesky research notes for the church Centennial book. I don’t know that I’ll worry about whether I finish it or not. Another hour or two will result in being close to done.
Continue inching along with There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. Not much for me to do but work with the cover creator and do a little more editing, by myself and with the critique group.
Work on the two Bible studies hand-in-hand. I anticipate finishing the “guts” of the one for this year, on Gethsemane and Arrest. The one on the Last Supper I don’t expect to finish, but who knows? I’m actually ahead of where I expected to be by this time, so maybe I can get the “guts” of it done too.
Attend writers groups. Three will be in-person, and three on-line. I anticipate missing two however, due to a scheduled heart procedure that may require an overnight stay in the hospital.
Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I’m not quite as well organized on this as I was in March, but I ought to be able to do it.
Continue work on the “Available Works” part of my web site. Based on how much I have done, I ought to be able to do this.
One irregular item: Work on and finish the presentation I’m scheduled to make to the Northwest Arkansas Letter Writers Society on May 10. I have what I want to say planned out, have begun writing it, and have pulled together some graphics for a power point presentation.
That’s a good amount of goals. I’ll be doing well if I accomplish them all, what with everything else going on.
This little book is a good read about a good man who had a good ministry. Well worth reading.
One of the books we picked up used, somewhere along life’s way, is Luis Palau by Terry Whalin. It’s part of the Men of Faith series by Bethany House Publishers (since bought by others).
Palau was an Argentinian who grew up in difficult economic circumstances. He had limited schooling at an early age, though finally went to a European-run boarding school in Argentina. Slowly, God got ahold of his heart and he embraced Jesus as Lord.
He became interested in spreading God’s word and, in the 1940s, became aware of mass evangelism. This seemed a great idea to him. He found mentors and organizations to guide him, and his ministry took off. A few years later, he was holding crusades throughout Latin America. As bilingual, Spanish and English, he was soon called upon to hold crusades around the world. Along the way, he had emigrated to the USA, married in the States, and they had children.
The book was written while Pilau was alive and holding crusades. The author, Terry Whalin, is someone I’ve met at writing conferences. He has been active in all parts of the publishing industry: author, editor, agent, publisher. He also spent time with Wycliff Bible Translators. I’ve corresponded with Terry off and on over the years.
This is a good little book. If you get ahold of a copy, it’s well worth reading. Our book was a strange critter. We began reading it aloud. We got to page 32, and the next page was 65. At page 96, it went back to page 65. We saw, stamped on the bottom of the book, “Seconds”. We obviously bought a defective copy. Not to worry. It was probably a 50¢ purchase. But, we aren’t going to pass a defective copy on to someone else, and into recycling we will go. We were able to find a copy of the book to borrow at Internet Archives, so we were able to finish it.
I’m now down to the third Bible verse that I use to start my day. [If interested, you can see an overview of this series of posts here, and the first verse here and the second verse here.] Here’s the third verse.
So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ [Luke 17:10 NIV]
Pouring over old record books held at the church was the first place to start in my research.
This is at the end of a passage sometimes titled “Sin, Faith, Duty”. Jesus talks about how a person who has a servant will not, after both servant and master have had a busy day, serve the servant. He will expect the servant to continue in his/her duties until the master’s needs are met.
Yet, Jesus says: If all you, as a servant, have done is your duty—if you have not gone beyond your duty and done more than asked—you are an unworthy servant.
This verse struck me several years ago. I think I was still working as an engineer when I found this and knew right away it had to be one of my life verses. I was closing in on retirement and was kind of skating, doing the minimum I had to to keep my job. Then this verse came anew into my life, and I knew I had to change. About a year before retirement my boss gave me a difficult assignment, to assist (and eventually take over for) a design professional who was overwhelmed with problem projects. I dug into it, and for fourteen months had a wild ride bringing those projects into some kind of resolution. I think I did my duty with them, and more than my duty.
That also hit home last July. In June I had finished writing the book for our church’s Centennial, at our pastor’s request. This meant monthly virtual meetings of the committee, and lots of research and writing. The deadline for the book kept getting pushed out as our celebration kept getting delayed due to pandemic and construction. I decided to stick with it as if the deadline was close, finished it about 10 months ahead of schedule, and set back to rest awhile.
But one item nagged at me. The church had 12 known charter members, but supposedly 63 charter members in total, the names of the other 51 never having been properly recorded, or, if recorded, the records were lost. A new pastor came a few years into the church’s life and established record books. Henceforth, members were added and deleted as they joined and left or died. But he also reached back in time and recorded, I’m sure to the best of his ability, the names of everyone who had been a member before he became our pastor. It included some members who had already left. That was a total of about 170 names.
Something inside me said I ought to dig in, do the research, and see if I could determine who those other charter members were. But, I protested to myself, if there are 170 names, and 12 of those are known charter members, that means I have to research about 158 names and try to sort them out as to which to include in the 51 and which to exclude. It was a monumental task and I decided I wouldn’t do it.
July rolled around, and I began proofreading the book at a leisurely pace. I came to the point of there having been 63 charter members, 51 one of them unknown but buried among 158 names, and I had to stop. The verse came to me, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” I had done my duty; the book was done, and done early, leaving plenty of time for editing and proofreading.
But, the thought kept nagging me: if I only did my duty, I was an unworthy servant. I made the decision that I would do the research and see what would result.
Thus, July and August were consumed with research of those 158 names, trying to find a reason to choose 51 of them as charter members. First, I developed five criteria of what would make me include or eliminate someone as a probable charter member. Then I went by family groups, then those not in family groups. Using various internet research sites, I applied the five criteria to each person.
Slowly, everything began to sort out. I was able to make educated judgments and narrow the list of probable charter members down from 158 to around 60. After that, it was just guesswork, but I came up with my list of 51 names and added them to the Centennial book.
But, I didn’t mean for this post to get into the nitty-gritty of the task. I wanted to show how this Bible verse spoke to me and helped guide my behavior. It probably sounds like so much patting myself on the back. I don’t mean to do that. I know there have been plenty of times when I was that unworthy servant, doing only my duty or even less than my duty. But using a real illustration of the principle resulted in the back patting.
I hope this verse will help you as you develop a strategy for completing the work that life has assigned for you to do, or that you have taken on voluntarily. And that the three Bible verses in this series will encourage you. The sun is just breaking the horizon on this cold (28°) spring morning. It is time for me to awaken the dawn!
