This morning, I have been meditating on Psalm 57. It has been some rough sledding. Sometimes, a psalm screams at your soul and begs you to listen. Other times, wisdom has to be mined like diamonds from deep underground. So, after writing, thinking, and meditating for hours, I turned finally, to my shelves with more … More Diverted from Study by a Poet from 1930
Actually, it is more accurate to say that they give up all the protections of freedom too easily. What are the protections of freedom? Things like: Freedom of speech Freedom of assembly Real borders A constitution A real separation of powers A limit on executive power Property rights that mean something And, easiest of all, … More Americans Give Up Freedom So Easily
This poem was written in 1936, published and then largely forgotten until it was rediscovered 2013. In September of this year (2024), it was republished in a collection of poems of J.R.R. Tolkien as poem number 148 with the title, “Noel.” (Advice: If you can, read the poem aloud, do it. Poetry is written to … More A Christmas Poem of J.R.R. Tolkien
I read my first Carl Henry book around 1975. I remember where I was and that Carl Henry’s words were both challenging and precise. The year was 1975. I was at my parent’s house at 4200 Spruce Street and stole away into my Dad’s office for a quiet place to read. The book was a … More A Christmas Homily from Carl Henry
Covid was a great thing for some of my long term writing projects. I finished first drafts of four manuscripts in the those months of anxiety and insanity. The pictures above are a mock-up of the book cover. The book will be released in early February. Here’s the introduction’s first paragraph: This book is a … More New Book Coming in February
Have you read J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit? Stay tuned for a story about the Tolkien’s problems in writing the books. I’m 2,000 words into the writing of a short story inspired by a professor I knew 35 years ago, a book I read 30 years ago, a wonderful church in … More Writing is a Confounding Work
Today was a good reading day. Two books, besides my Bible were on my docket, a novel, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and What Jesus Demands from the World, by John Piper. Below are two passages, one from each that I think illumine one another. The first one is from Tolstoy. It comes from part two, … More Destroying Our Own Lives
Reading an excellent new book with our church. Tonight was our third moderated discussion at the church covering chapters two and three. I thought pages 18 and 19 were particularly insightful. Here’s a quote of merit on the difference our routines make in our lives. “Sometimes, our lives are shaped by these routines in ways … More The Routines that Shape Us
There is a scene in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Part 2, Chapter 22), where Tolstoy uses the innocent response of an eight-year old boy to the wickedness of the presence of Vronsky in his mother’s circle of friends. It is a brilliantly written scene, powerful in its picture and effective in its movement of the plot. … More Children as a Compass for Goodness
I made a mistake this morning. I picked up Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and read the first sentence, then I read the first paragraph and before I knew it, I was two chapters in and now I am hopelessly committed to reading the book again, for the fifth time. Don’t be too impressed. The chapters are … More Confession: I’m Addicted
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