Category Archives: Bible study

Bible study, Christianity, self-publishing

Juggling Writing Two Bible Studies

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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.

Bible study, Christianity, Writing

“We Are Unworthy Servants”

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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!

 

 

Bible study, miscellaneous

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

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I had a different post planned for today, one that is mostly written, but have decided to change course. Yesterday, Sunday, was a typical day for us. Church in the morning, take-out for lunch, rest and writing in the afternoon, also a walk in the afternoon, leftovers for supper, a little bit of television, and reading, both aloud and silently.

As to writing, I did quite well on the Bible study I’m currently working on. It’s the same one I’m teaching to our adult Sunday school class. I managed to add over 1,650 words to it and organized the chapter I’m working on. I also found a couple of flaws in my Harmony of the Gospels for this passage of scripture, and was able to work that out and correct it. I still have to type the changes in the master file.

What made the day different is what happened on our walk. Both Lynda and I are not in as good a physical shape as we would like, so we are not walking very far. Plus, I’m limiting my exertions until I go through a heart procedure on April 19.  But we went a little farther today, 1.26 miles according to the app on my phone.

It was a bright, sunny day, with a strong breeze, quite pleasant to walk in. Few cars were on the road to bother us. We saw another walker or two out, but not close. On the return leg we saw a man walking his dog. Well, we thought it was a boy until we got right up to him. He pulled the dog off to the ditch when a car approached in one direction and we in the other. As we came up to him and he remained in the ditch with the dog, ostensibly to let us pass, I flipped the switch and decided to talk to him.

Yes, I had to flip a switch inside of me. To talk with a stranger on the street is something I don’t do by nature, other than a quick nod and “Hello” and keep going where I’m going. It doesn’t really get any easier to do more than that.

But yesterday I did, and said, “What a handsome dog. Is it a beagle?” He replied with thanks and said the dog was part beagle. The dog made friendly lunges at us, putting his paws up high. He was never really still enough to let us pet him. We had a pleasant conversation with the man, lasting maybe three minutes. He was the son of people who lived down one of the side roads, just visiting and walking their dog for them. We never did get his name nor give him ours. I should have asked him his parents’ names and which of they two houses down that side street was theirs but, alas, didn’t think of that.

On with our walk. As we turned to go up the street that our circle connects to, a gray, short-bed pick-up passed us, a Ford Maverick, with the temporary plate of a new vehicle. Both of us remarked how quiet it was and wondered if it was electric. It pulled into the drive of a house we would soon pass. A man got out of the truck (not the neighbor who lives there, so apparently a visitor) and, being still 30 feet away and approaching him, I called out, “Quiet truck. Is it electric?”

I’m sure many of you would say something to the effect, you dummy, of course a Ford Maverick is electric. But I don’t follow vehicle names and models, so I didn’t know, nor did Lynda. He said yes, a hybrid. He had ordered it in July 2020, I think it was, and it had just come. He got it for the 2020 price and was pleased with the bargain. We talked about the truck and its features, benefits, gas mileage, performance, strengths, and weaknesses. It was a pleasant conversation.

I didn’t get his name, nor did he ask us ours. The conversation was a win-win item. We got information and he got to show off his purchase and knowledge of it.

Just a quiet day in the neighborhood, trying to break out of my natural introvert cell. Maybe some day I’ll move to learning names of people and remembering them, but for now, that’s enough.

Bible study, Christianity, Genealogy, technology woes, Writing

Light and Momentary Troubles, Part 2

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Dateline: 24 March 2022

Not too long ago, I posted about the second of three Bible verses that I try to start each day with. This one, 2 Corinthians 4:17, talks about our troubles on this earth being light and momentary, and will result in an eternal glory that far surpasses the troubles. My focus of that post was that I wasn’t experiencing the glory because I wasn’t using the troubles as a spur to personal growth.

This photo doesn’t really show how my workspace was torn apart from moving stuff to get to devices and cables. Will wait a little to everything back in place. Maybe I’ll even organize it a little.

Wednesday was one of those days, when troubles seemed somewhat more than light. The power company was working in our neighborhood and had alerted us that they would be turning off our power for a couple of hours in the morning, and that they would come by and tell us before they did. The day started out normally. I was at my computer by 7:30 a.m., doing writing and stock trading tasks. It was about 10:00 a.m. before the power company came by and gave us a 10-minute warning.  I closed out of all programs, keeping only a couple of Word documents open, closed the lid on my laptop, and left The Dungeon.

Sure enough, the power soon went off. I took the occasion to make my weekly grocery run to Wal-Mart. Normally a Tuesday task, a long meeting then had caused me to delay a day. I went and did my shopping, for a change finding everything on my list. At the self-checkout, all worked well.

The man at the self-checkout station next to me had some unusual items in his cart: a dozen cans of salt and that many gallon bottles of vinegar. That seemed strange, and I did something I never do: I started a conversation with him, asking him about the oddity of his purchases. Understand: I never do that. If at all possible I go through the store and consider it a good time if I don’t have to talk with anyone.

Although, earlier in this trip, I did talk briefly with a woman shopper in the pharmacy section. A rock and roll song was coming over the loudspeakers and I was humming it. This woman and her adult daughter came in my direction and the woman was singing it. She caught my eye and stopped, embarrassed. Then I started signing it and so she started again. Three seconds later we had passed each other, on with our shopping.

Back to the man and his cart of salt and vinegar. I assumed he was buying for a restaurant, but he said no, it was for his concoction of killing weeds in his rock yard. He told me his formula. Since I have the same problem and have considered hiring a lawn service to spray deadly chemicals on it, I was interested. I learned something from this conversation, this impromptu, hard for me to start but easy to continue conversation.

Back to light and momentary troubles. When I got home, the power was still off. The power company had said two hours, and we weren’t there yet. So I went to the sunroom and read. The temperature was 40° out and the sunroom was getting cold with the space heater not working. I was about done with my daily reading quota in this particular book when the power came on, just shy of three hours since it had gone off. The power company had said it might take as long as that if they ran into any problems.

All was good. The trouble of no power was indeed light and momentary, and I thought I had redeemed the time well. A brief lunch, and downstairs to The Dungeon to resume my activities, only to learn…no internet. No problem. I rebooted the modem; still no internet. I rebooted the router; still no internet. I waited then repeated those two steps. Still no internet. I finally found a number for our internet provider. They did a remote reset of the modem; still no internet. I got on a text chat with a rep of their company. He did various things. I tried to explain the situation. Two hours of texting; still no internet.

I took note of the steady light showing on the modem and the all-lights-flashing status of the router, assumed a router failure, and texted a friend who is an IT guy in his job and arranged for an evening call. I wondered if the router experienced a power failure when it came back on. I also considered that the internet provider had sent an e-mail a week before, saying they had increased speeds and I would have to reboot the modem to take advantage of that. I hadn’t done it yet, but the power shutdown was actually a forced reboot. I now have 866 mbps speed—but no internet. Could it be that this old router was incompatible with the higher speed?

This trouble was turning out to be worse than light and not all that momentary. I found other things to do, mainly going through an old genealogy research notebook and getting rid of a bunch of stuff I no longer need. I read the instructions for the air fryer we’ve had for three years but never used and planned to cook some veggies in it. Supper came and went, and I had the call with my friend. We talked through the internet problem. He agreed with me that it sounded as if the router had gone bad. Based on our set-up, he talked me through a work-around, and poof! we had internet.

From there the conversation rolled into other areas to fill the hour. Technology, internet, CATV vs streaming, cost increases, even a little into politics. We ended when he was expecting another call to come in. It was a good hour.

So how would I describe these technology troubles. Light? Momentary? In hindsight I would guess so, though it didn’t seem like it at the time. But since the time was redeemed, and redeemed well, I would have to say they were indeed light and momentary, and that God used them toward the goal of eternal glory.

Bible study, Christianity, The Forest Throne, Writing

Into a Writing Rhythm

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Dateline: 17 March 2022

Moving this 7 foot high woodpile about 60 feet downhill might interrupt my writing rhythm.

I haven’t looked back to see what my writing goals for March are, but I know I’ve been busy writing. I’m into a rhythm of sorts. I need to be since I’m working on two projects at once, while still waiting on two others to truly finish and drop off the radar.

The two waiting to be finished are the church Centennial book and my MG/YA novel There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. The former is done  and sent to the printer. At least the insides are. The cover has lagged due to the designer’s busyness. She sent it to me on Tuesday. I immediately shot it to our pastor and committee chair for approval. Both wanted tweaks or changes, one involving a new photo. That photo arrived in my inbox today. I sent it on, and the cover designer says I should have the revised cover tomorrow. Once I send it on to the printer, that project will be truly done.

The other project is also done—sort of. I’m waiting on five beta readers to give me feedback, four of them in the target age group. I’ve given nudges but hear nothing from them. The cover is under preparation by a different designer. I think, once that is done, I will publish it with or without the feedback from the five. If they give me good suggestions for substantive changes, I can always make the changes and republish the book. Meanwhile, I’m giving my critique group a chapter every two weeks and getting good feedback. Alas, as adult writers, they aren’t in the target demographic. Both of these projects are taking very little of my time.

My Bible commentaries are out, resting one on another on the kitchen table, and likely to stay there for a couple of months. I see blank paper to write on, but what did I do with my notes?

Now, as for current projects, they are two Bible studies that form a pair. First, some background. Last year, Feb-Apr, I taught a Bible study on the Last Supper, 13 weeks I think it was. It was Part 3 of a larger study, A Walk Through Holy Week. We are studying it in our Life Group, one part a year, based on the harmony of the gospels I wrote. I realized that the entire study would make a good series of books. I didn’t do anything with Parts 1 and 2, but Part 3 seemed especially suitable for a Bible study book.

Alas, when that study was over, I was fully involved in the Centennial book, and when I had it mostly finished by June (with a research supplement not done till Aug), I moved straight into the time travel book because the iron was hot and I wanted to get it done. Meanwhile, I preserved my teaching notes, some of which were handwritten and some typed. Whenever my schedule freed up, I would be ready to write it.

That happened around mid-January this year. I gathered my notes, merged and organized them, then created the book file. I labored at it for a month. Yes, labored, for I found it very difficult to write. My plan was to have one chapter for each week’s lesson. Chapters would be organized into seven sections, making for a reading a day should the reader want to proceed that way. I was able to make some headway on it, starting the seven readings for Chapter 1 and completing some of them. I got some “days” done, others not. By around March 3rd, I had perhaps 12,000 words of a book that I think will be 50-60,000. Not great progress, but some.

Then a dilemma hit me. On Sunday, March 6, we were to start Part 4 of the Holy Week study. I immediately thought I couldn’t work on both studies. Teaching the new one would consume so much time, and cover different material, that writing Part 3 while teaching Part 4 would be difficult. But the thought came that maybe I should just write the new one and lay Part 3 aside. That way, I could write the chapters (again, planning for seven readings in each chapter) as I was teaching it. The material would be fresh, and hopefully the writing would go fast as well.

I taught the first lesson of Part 4 on March 6. The day before, Saturday, I did an intensive study for it. Coming home from church on Sunday, I went to my computer and began writing the new study. As I hoped, it was easier. I was able to incorporate class discussion and thoughts not in my notes that came to me as I was teaching while all was fresh on my mind. Sunday, I wrote one complete reading and part of another. I also organized the chapters and readings. Monday, I did two more readings, Tuesday two more, and Wednesday, two more, completing the chapter. Yay!

That left me Thursday and Friday to return to the Part 3 book and see what I could accomplish. What I found was I really needed to re-study the material just as if I was going to teach it anew. I did that on Thursday, and on Friday I wrote two days of readings. My writing time on Saturday had to go to study for the next lesson in Part 4.

So it seemed to me that this was a viable rhythm. Saturday: study to teach a lesson in Part 4. Sunday, teach the lesson and work on writing the chapter in Part 4. Monday-Tuesday write the Part 4 chapter, hoping to finish by Tuesday evening. If I couldn’t, continue with Part 4 writing on Wednesday. When that was done, shift to Part 3, hoping to study a chapter and write it on Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.

It worked out like that this week. I completed the second chapter of Part 4 on Wednesday, early enough to give me some time to shift to writing Part 3. As of the time of this writing, I should finish tomorrow (today when you read this) the most difficult chapter to write in Part 3. Then, it’s on to Chapter 3 of Part 4 and another chapter in Part 3. I hope this is making sense.

Part 4 finishes on Easter Sunday. The week after Easter I have a medical procedure scheduled that will prevent me from writing a whole lot. I hope to finish Part 4 by the end of April—the first draft, that is. I’ll be very surprised if I am even half-way through with Part 3 by then, but maybe I will be.

As of yet, I have no publishing schedule for either of these. I don’t know if I’ll publish Part 4 when done, and Part 3 a couple of months later, or if I’ll withhold Part 4 until Part 3 is done and publish them together, or maybe a month apart. Once I know, I’ll let you all know here.

Bible study, Christianity, miscellaneous

“Our Light and Momentary Troubles”

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The second Bible verse (see here for my discussion of the three verses and here for the first verse) I try to say each morning has been with me a long time, probably twenty years. I’ve used it in my e-mail signature at least since 2005. I think I first took note of it in 1993-94, when coaching our church’s teen Bible quizzing team. It is 2nd Corinthians 4:17.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all.

I more or less remember the day I found this verse. It hit me hard. Whatever our troubles are on this earth—and they might be many—they are nothing in relationship to heaven. Persevering through earthly troubles will result in heavenly glory for us.

The load about to go to Salvation Army. Glad to have this go; sad to think this a small amount of what we need to get rid of. A light and momentary trouble.

At some point I began saying this every morning. That is, except when I got up and forgot, which happens occasionally. I know that the day will have troubles. That’s a sign that I’m living, interacting with people. Quoting it helps me to keep those troubles in perspective.

However, recently I realized I wasn’t getting the full benefit of this verse. Sure, seeing my troubles in an eternal perspective was important, and beneficial, but the verse says something more. Those troubles are supposed to be achieving for me an eternal glory that’s much greater than the troubles. But were they?

I had a couple of incidents of troubles this week, and they almost slipped by without my realizing the full benefit of them. On Monday, after many false starts and delays, I loaded up the van with remnants of the garage sale we had over a year ago to take them to a thrift store. We decided that this load would go to the Salvation Army donation center about 20 miles from our house. We have a closer thrift store where we normally take donations, but decided this time to help out the Salvation Army.

A couple of months ago I had called them and learned their donation hours were 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. I had the load ready around 1:30, thus figuring I was safe. But to be sure, I called the donation center. Alas, their phone was busy. Busy on the first call, the second call, the third call. For 15 minutes their line was busy. I should have just got in the van and made the trip. Finally, they answered the phone, and I learned that their closing time had changed to 2:30 p.m. It was about 10 minutes to 2 p.m., and I had 20 miles to drive.

What to do? Knowing I had a busy day planned for Tuesday, I quickly hopped in the van and left. The recently opened Bella Vista bypass allowed for quick travel, and I reached the mall they were in (I’d not been to S.A. since they moved to this declining mall). I drove around it and no Salvation Army. I called, knowing I hadn’t been able to reach them easily earlier. But they answered right away, told me where they were in relation to the mall building and said drive around back. Although, the woman answering said “go past the mall….” I asked her east-bound or west-bound, but she didn’t know her east from west. A follow-up question gave me what I needed.

I got to the back at 2:22 pm, and the door was closed, the sign in place saying they were closed for donations. I knocked and no one came. I pulled the door open and no one was in sight. I called out and no one answered. I was hot. I drove around to the front and went in, ready to give them a piece of my mind. They assured me they were open for donations, to drive around the back again, and they would meet me. I got back in the van, still hot, when my verse came to mind. I was reminded that this trouble was, in fact, light and momentary.

But was it achieving me an eternal glory that outweighed the trouble? Not the way I was going. I had to change my attitude. I realized the worst that could happen was I might have missed delivering to this store and would have to drive to the other. The cost would have been just 10 miles of extra driving—not an inconsiderable cost these days. I got around the back. Three workers met me and they made short work unloading my full van while we had pleasant conversation. It was 2:30 p.m.

The other trouble came on Tuesday. After breakfast, when I was going to start my writing day, I remembered I really needed to prepare the income tax form for our partnership. Partnership tax returns are due March 15. Oh, such a problem.

All the information needed to complete the partnership taxes was on spreadsheets. I opened these. One was the business records, the other was the tax computations. But, the two spreadsheets didn’t quite match. I had some manipulation to do before I could dump the business records into the tax spreadsheet. Is this making sense?

Alas, I had much trouble with it. I had two spreadsheets open, and two worksheets in one spreadsheet. I kept making changes to the wrong file, or the wrong tab in the file, and had to un-do a lot and start over. I couldn’t remember how I did it last year. Finally, in frustration I left The Dungeon, went upstairs and got another cup of coffee. I had wasted over an hour.

As I sipped coffee back in The Dungeon, I realized that this trouble was light and momentary. But, my frustration and anger wasn’t achieving for me an eternal glory that outweighed the trouble. That would only happen if I calmed down, figured out how to do this a step at a time. It meant I would have to give up completely my morning writing session, which would put me behind my week’s writing goal. “If that’s what it takes,” I decided. Two hours later, and the problem was solved. The tax spreadsheet had all the information from the business accounting spreadsheet. Filling out the actual tax forms would be a two-hour task on Wednesday, and the deadline would be met.

Light and momentary troubles. I’ve recognized that for close to 30 years. But I haven’t always achieved the eternal glory part. This week, I think I took a couple of steps in the right direction.

Bible study, Christianity, Daddy Daughter Day

“I Will Awaken The Dawn”

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A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had three Bible verses that I tried to start each day with. I also confessed that I wasn’t always that faithful with saying these verses. I’m getting better at it, however. I started this about two years ago, though two of those three verses have been special to me for longer than that.

The first of these verses comes from the Psalms. I find it in two places there: Psalm 57:8 and Psalm 108:2.

I will awaken the dawn.

Actually, that’s not the full verse. I should quote the full verse.

Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.

While I have probably read this more than once, it first grabbed me when we were doing a study of Psalm 119 maybe four years ago. For some reason this verse in Psalm 108 must have been cross-referenced to something in Psalm 119.

This, as I say, grabbed at me. What did it mean exactly? To try to find out, I checked other translations (the above quotes are from the NIV). I found they were surprisingly the same. The New Living Translation has Psalm 57:8 as, “Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song.”

What did it mean? I pondered it for a while, internalizing it, and concluded that the psalmist woke in the morning excited about the day that was before him. He couldn’t wait for the sun to come up so that he could be about living another day joyously in service to God. So he wrote, “I will awaken the dawn.” I will call upon the day to start so that I can get to my daily chores, my work, my career, or whatever it is he had to do.

That struck me as a good way to start my days, to be anxious for what God had in store for me today, and what the world has for me. C’mon day, let’s get going. C’mon sun, I need your light so that I can be out and about, meeting people, serving God, serving mankind.

First, I had to think, is this how I really feel? Am I excited to have another day to live? Thankful, of course. But when nature calls early in the morning, and I swing my feet off the bed to the floor, and I anxious for the day, so anxious that I say, “I will awaken the dawn”? I decided yes, yes I am excited to be living another day.

What about that Saturday in late February, when I spent three hours chopping ice in the driveway and shoveling it off so that I would be able to get to church on Sunday and teach Life Group? My back was tired, my hip was tired, my mind was tired. I woke up that Sunday with many more aches and pains than usual. Yet I was able to say, “I will awaken the dawn,” get up, and get to my normal Lord’s day activities.

What about income tax season? I have a love-hate relationship with income taxes. I enjoy the challenge of doing them myself. Yet, it’s a lot of work and often frustrating. In early March, when I work on the partnership taxes, and then in early April when I do our personal taxes, saying, “I will awaken the dawn” isn’t all that easy. Still, I say it anyway, realizing I have another challenge to tackle and overcome.

Then there’s the daily “grind” of writing. Yes, it is a grind. I can’t say it any other way. Sometimes it’s almost a drudgery. Yet, again, there’s that challenge waiting me in the morning, to get my coffee, walk down the stairs to The Dungeon, have my time of devotions and prayer, check overnight e-mails and social media, then get to whatever book I’m working on. While it severely cuts into my retirement idleness, I can joyously say, “I will awaken the dawn” as I open a book file and begin typing.

I actually wrote a poem that kind of sums up, or maybe expands upon, what this verse is saying. It’s the second poem in my book Daddy-Daughter Day.

That says kind of the same thing, I think. Written in 2005 (or 2006), it speaks of wanting the day to occur and being excited about the adventures that await you.

So, what happens on a day when I wake and just don’t feel ready to claim the day as my own? When I don’t particularly want to awaken the dawn? Yes, I have days like that. I still say the verse. And the verse seems to get hold of me, once again. My attitude quickly changes. And I get on with the adventures that God has for me today.

Bible study, Christianity, goals, self-publishing

February Progress, March Goals

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Last day of the month, a short month. Time to see how I did on reaching my monthly goals, and to set some goals for next month.

It has taken over a year of work to get to this point, but finally we are within a couple of weeks of going to print. I said this last month, but it seems closer now.

First, the progress on goals I set back on January 31.

  • Make any edits to the church Centennial book and deliver it to the printer. I guess that means we will have to make a decision on the printer, but that decision is actually almost made. This goal depends a bit on the cover designer, but it’s a fairly simple cover so I don’t see this as a problem. I sort of achieved this goal. I made all the final edits, and am now just waiting on the cover creator. I received one new photo from the descendant of a former pastor. While waiting on the cover, I’ll see if I can work that in.
  • Related to that, though not necessarily writing, finish pulling my research notes together into a format and organization that will make the job of a future researcher easier. I assume someone, in 25 or 50 years, will do something similar to me at a future milestone anniversary. Nope, didn’t work on this at all. Once I picked up some of my notes and tried to put them in some kind of order, but gave it up. It takes a different mindset to do this kind of task, and I’m afraid I never had that mindset this month. I’ll add it to next month.
  • Make any edits necessary to There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. I want to get a few more chapters through my critique group, and of course I’m waiting on the beta readers and then the cover artist. Assuming that all comes together, I’m looking at publishing either in March or April. This project continues to move forward. I’m waiting on two key beta readers to get back with me, which I hope will be this week. I was supposed to have met with the cover artist last week, but two days of snowstorms got in the way of that. While waiting, I’m going through the book one more time, looked at suggestions the critique group made, and seeing if I can make other, similar changes. I would say that March is unlikely for publishing at this stage. April is still possible.
  • Complete significant work on The Last Supper Bible study. I’ve had some trouble coming up with the right format; or rather, I’ve had trouble seeing how the format I came up with a year ago will work. I have to get some words on paper and see how well it comes together. As such, this goal is a bit unfocused. Just as this goal was unfocused, so was my work. I did accomplish a few things. First, I got all my files together. I moved words already written around so that they were in the right place. I temporarily gave up on Chapter 1, which was giving me much trouble, and moved to Chapter 2, which I all but finished. While I wish I was further along, I feel good about where I am. I’ll have to get a little way into Chapter 3 before I can say, for certain, that this is a viable project.
  • As always, attend writing group meetings, both in person and on-line. That will likely be five meetings, three of which will be in person. Well, between pandemic and travel and snow, some meetings were cancelled. I had one in-person meeting, of the Scribblers & Scribes, and two on-line meetings. March promises to be better.
  • As always, blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. Did this, though one day I remembered late in the day that I hadn’t posted anything and rushed something and posted it. Hopefully that won’t happen next month.

Okay, so what do I plan to do in March? Should I set high goals, or just what I can accomplish without a lot of effort? Since two projects are dependent on others…well, we’ll see.

  • Repeat from last month: 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 assume someone, in 25 or 50 years, will do something similar to this at a future milestone anniversary. I want to leave my notes in a condition that will facilitate their work. This is likely to take several days or even a week of concentrated work. This task includes writing a short document (short as in 10-15 pages) “Notes for a Future Researcher”. That document, however, is most likely a task for a future month, say April, or May.
  • Continue to shepherd the church Centennial book to publication. I have minor things I can do while waiting on the cover, slight improvements to be made. Almost certainly this will go to the printer in March.
  • 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.
  • Make good progress on the Last Supper Bible study. I’d like to finish three more chapters in March.
  • 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. I think tonight I’m going to do the final “programming” of this study, figuring out the chapters, estimating length, etc.
  • Attend writers groups. I expect this will be three online and three in-person meetings. I don’t think we’ll be doing any traveling this month (though I’m not sure of that), winter weather is less likely (though not impossible), so I expect these meetings to happen this month.
  • Blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. This should be a bit easier this month. I have three blog posts that I know I’m going to write, and four book reviews to write, so I think I’m good.
  • I’ll throw in one more for good measure. For a while, I’ve wanted to 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.

So, there’s the goals. They are somewhat lofty, especially what I want to accomplish with the two Bible studies. I’ll check back in, probably on April 1, and let you all know how I did.

Bible study, Christianity, critique group, family, Harry Potter, travel

A Mishmash While Away From Home

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Elise, working on her “word” for earning money from Grandpa, while Nitwit surveys the scene from above, watching out for Useless and Nuisance.

We are back in West Texas for a visit with our daughter’s family. I know, we were just here a month ago, but they had need for a babysitter last Friday night, and we said we’d come do it. We drove here last Thursday, and will likely leave for home tomorrow, though possibly not till Wednesday.

It’s been an easy gig. The four kids were reasonably compliant with doing their chores on Saturday. Even little Elijah, 5 years old, was given two chores. He had his sister write out a to-do list for him, as she was doing for herself. Grandparents can usually ride herd on the kids in a way the parents can’t. At least, they seem to do somewhat better with us in some ways, being a little quicker to jump-to-it when we ask them to do something.

Sunday was church. I went early with the three oldest kids, Lynda and Sara and Elijah coming later. Richard, as pastor, was already there. I attended men’s class for Sunday school, then, during church, I found an unused room, connected by Zoom, and taught our class at our home church remotely. The attendance was good, and the class went well. Of course, that mean I didn’t sit through a church service yesterday. Hopefully I can do so today on the replays.

Elijah had fun cleaning his play area in the sunroom, then checking it off as a job done.

It was difficult to work on writing during this time, so I’ve done a lot of reading. As much as possible, to be an example for the grandkids, I’ve been reading in a print book. So far, no real indication that it’s doing much good. Except maybe for Elise, who is reading Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix in a print book—but she has been doing that for a while. I was able to review two chapters for critique group, which meets on Thursday. I guess on Friday I managed to spend on hour on the Bible study I’m writing. I don’t feel like I got very far with it.

We brought a surplus bookcase from our house to help organize theirs. Elijah’s other chore was to put books and toys on it, which he did with much help from Elise and guidance from Grandpa.

We have also had to care for Useless, Nitwit, and Nuisance, the three pets. Except, it’s now four pets. One grandchild was unhappy that he didn’t really have a pet, so they arranged for a rescue kitten to come join the menagerie. Except, the rescue kitten was in Oklahoma City. So we stopped there on the way here, met up with the rescue woman, and brought the new kitten here. The grandson named her Sapphire. While she is transitioning into the household with three pets there already (actually, more than that if you include the bearded dragon and the goldfish), she is needing a lot of attention. While I was wondering what nickname I could give the new kitten, Elise said it ought to be a name about a girl who needs a lot of attention. Obviously, I immediately named her Diva. Hopefully, with this pet the zoo is complete.

Diva is isolated from the two older cats, she being a female and them being not-yet-neutered males (kittens who are almost cats). I didn’t spend a lot of time with her—if you don’t count the 6 hours in the car between OKC and here.

My plan is to leave the zoo tomorrow. We’ll take their recyclables and drop them in OKC, then get home by a good time, though too late to join an on-line writing group.

One bit of writing I did accomplish (besides this blog post). While sitting on the front porch yesterday, reading for 30 minutes before the onslaught of 20 people from their small group at church for a Super Bowl party, before reading I set my mind to writing a short poem. Nothing major, just a cinqain (a five-line poem). I don’t know if it’s any good, but it’s sitting there on my phone, waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

So, I will see you all on Friday, back home, probably in The Dungeon, in old routines.

 

Bible study, family, miscellaneous, The Forest Throne, travel

Random Friday Thoughts

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Dateline: Jan. 20, 2022

Between leftovers and some takeout, I had to fix only one meal. Grandpa’s Mythical Sandwich was a hit, as always.

Yes, the dateline shows that I’m writing these Friday thoughts on Thursday. At least I’m beginning these thoughts then.

Yesterday (Wednesday), we drove back from West Texas from having babysat our four grandchildren last weekend and staying a few extra days. We might have come home on Tuesday, but Lynda had a stomach bug, so we delayed a day. Actually, we had been uncertain of which day to come home on.

But yesterday morning before we left, our son-in-law was sick, went for a covid test, and was positive. So we have been exposed. As it turns out we hadn’t been all that close to him in the house, so maybe we will be okay. But, let the quarantine begin. I guess 5 days. Except, I have prescriptions to pick up at Wal-Mart and a few after-trip groceries I must get. I’ll do that this morning.  I’ll have to miss the monthly meeting of the Scribblers & Scribes, our critique group, Thursday night. I’ll send my piece to them by e-mail.

With The Forest Throne done and waiting on beta readers, and with the church Centennial book done and waiting on proof-readers, I’m about to spend time on my next writing project. As I said in my annual writing goals post earlier this month, it would be a Bible study. But which one? On Tuesday, I consolidated my various files from the Holy Week study I taught last Lenten season, on the Last Supper. Thursday morning, I found my hand-written teaching notes and will go through them over the next several days.  I have a feeling I will make this my next book rather than the study I did on 1 and 2 Timothy some years ago. But we shall see. I should know by early next week.

I’m in the process of contacting an artist about a cover for The Forest Throne. Hoping to make contact on Thursday. Also, the first beta reader of TFT is my granddaughter Elise, 8. She loved it. She also picked up on a number of subtle things I put in the book.

I’ve been brainstorming the concept of individualism, having posted on that before and wanting to do a follow-up or two, possibly even write and publish an essay on that. I have come to the conclusion that the opposite of individualism is collectivism. I even found a quote by Dr. M.L. King that agrees with that, but I can’t trace it back to the actual speech or document, so hate to use it. I don’t know that this essay will ever happen, or if it does it will be anything more than serialized blog posts.

The drive home from W. Texas was pleasant. I was worried about road conditions near the end, in our own county, as the forecast was for a wintry mix that afternoon. As I looked at radar that morning, frozen precip was showing over Oklahoma City, where we were making a brief stop to drop recyclables from our daughter’s accumulation. But after driving an hour and a half, and checking the predicted radar again, it showed the OKC precip abating by the time we would get there, and that what would fall toward the end of our trip would be minor at most. So on we drove. We stopped about 45 minutes from home and made a couple of phone calls, learned the roads were fine, and so we continued on home.

I’m in the midst of reading three different books (well, four if you include the one I read 3 or 4 pages of on my phone a day—no, five if you include the book I’m reading for Life Group teaching), two of which are books about writing. I took those two with me to Texas, and made good progress in them. One I should finish in three days or so; the other will likely take over two weeks. It’s interviews with 20 writers, and I’m just reading one interview a day.

That’s enough random thoughts. I hope to head to the sunroom later, with my handwritten notes, and get to work on the Bible study. See you all on Monday, when I hope to get back to something on my list of upcoming blog posts.