Last week I told you I’d set myself a new writing challenge: I signed up for NaNoWriMo — that’s NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth, November, when thousands of people commit to writing a 50,000 first draft of a novel in 30 days. Well, it is October 31, so I have not written a word, but I’ve […]
Getting the Big Picture with Good Reference Works (Letters to a Young Pastor)
Dear ______: One of the oddest moments I experienced in a seminary class was when a friend of mine raised his hand and asked a question. The prof turned to him like a switchblade opening and said Look it up. I’m not the answer man. No kidding. We quickly deduced that he didn’t like to […]
Jesus Christ’s New Job Description (Heidelberg Catechism Q51)
The Heidelberg Catechism (my favorite 450 year old Reformed summary of biblical Christianity, and a topic I’ve been blogging on since 2013) spends 23 questions painstakingly exploring issues that are not especially pressing to today’s Christians: They explain the Apostles’ Creed line by line. That’s good: the Creed is a classic summary of the important events leading to […]
Setting Yourself a Challenge (The Writer’s Inner Life)
Consider these two really odd “Sayings of the Desert Fathers.” Both are from the chapter on “Self-Control” in Benedicta Ward’s translation. They said of one hermit that he sometimes longed to eat a cucumber. So he took one and hung it in front of him where he could see it. He was not overcome by […]
Read Faster and Better with Book Reviews (Letters to a Young Pastor)
Dear ______: I’m glad to hear that you are seeing the pattern inside my recommended reading strategies. For all those I’ve told you about so far (primary sources, textbooks, and scholarly studies) the pattern is to get a clear big picture, and then moved toward the details. Think of it as the concentric circles that emerge […]
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