Carla told me as I spouted some of what I was learning from the Burkeman book that she suspected I don’t undertake things when I don’t think I’ll succeed at them. That’s something worth thinking about, perhaps.

My reflections on excerpts and quotations from Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals (2021) by Oliver Burkeman:

I think before I dive in to actual quotations, I should say that the main effect of this book on me is to solidify something I should have know: You can’t do everything you want. You won’t do everything you want. The sooner you get over that, the sooner you can move forward boldly with whatever you want to do, whether that’s oriented toward accomplishment or relationships or something else. (All in love, of course.) I think this takeaway would make the author happy.

And the more individual sovereignty you achieve over your time, the lonelier you get (31).

Gah, I’ve sure noticed that.

If Hägglund were guaranteed an infinity of these summer vacations, there’d be nothing much to value about any one of them; it’s only the guarantee that he definitely won’t have an infinity of them that makes them worth valuing. Indeed, it’s slide only from this position of...

“With.”

— God, in answer to another round of “What should I do?” or “How to decide what to do?”

“I only do what I see the Father doing.” Does that mean Jesus never masturbated?

Resolved: a solo screen sabbath from sundown Saturday through sundown Sunday.

Resolved: No weekend DiamondBack work unless it is explicitly required by logistics or by my supervisors.

In reply to a piece of email correspondence in which Ethan indicated an eagerness to incorporate “communion” into our weekly church schedule:

I’m not sure I’m game for the “every week” part yet myself, so let’s slow down on that and make sure to subject it to consensus. Part of my concern is procedural—ensure consensus for all such decisions—but part of my concern might also be personal: I maintain a tenuous sense of what His body being given and His blood being poured out “for [me]” even means.

Or maybe it’s not tenuous but feels that way because it’s substantially different from what I think most of us learned growing up, and I haven’t had much chance to share (and thus practice knowing) it. Maybe I’ll make it part of what I share when I tell the story of my life and the life of God in and around me.

“Died for us” and “died for our sins” are obviously crucial Jesus’ whole shebang. But I don’t want to establish a ritual around those concepts if I don’t have a firm grasp on what they...

If you find yourself upset about your inability to connect with your family and their penchant for gluing glowing rectangles to their hands or laps, don’t try to pry them away. Instead, charm them away by doing something with all your might à la the ceiling tiles in the Upper Room. It can something serious, something silly, something musical, something mundane, it can be something that you think will attract them or something that you think won’t. Just do it with all your might. Dancing. For the glory of the Lord. They’ll join you.

The important part for me in leisure is a deliberate decision to engage and stay engaged. “…do it with all your might…” Remember the lesson of the ceiling at the Upper Room.

What should leisure be? Creative contemplative, fun, generous, fascinating, playful, relational, involving the body. Two kinds: still and active.

What am I bad at? Deciding what specificlaly to do when it comes to leisure.

Why? Lack of practice.

How to solve? Practice.

Do you mean it’s going to take discipline? Yes.

When you’re in a place, do the things the place was made for. For instance, if you’re at a roller rink, go skating; don’t try to get things done on your computer, even if you can. If you’re at Highland Regional Park in Johnstown for Sullivan’s bike race, do bike race or park things; don’t try to get things done on your computer.

The nice thing about an airship is that you don’t need a garage.

— Sullivan

I double down when I’m wrong? Wait. When am I ever wrong?

— Éa

You know, whoever came up with the term ‘dad jokes’ has clearly never met my mother.

— Sullivan

“Climate change is a pivotal opportunity for humanity to create new ways of living that regenerate instead of degrade Earth’s systems.”

— Eric Sauder, “Penn State Climate Solutions Lab [draft proposal]”

If one wishes to read a book to add to one’s mental furniture, one must read it with attention. I do not really believe it is necessary to take all the separate steps mentioned in How to Read a Book. In fact, I think there is one enormous emotion almost omitted—I mean love. Instead of reading as a task, why not read because we love the book, or love its subject, or love its author, or anyhow love reading?

— William Lyon Phelps, in a review of Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book (1940), as quoted by Alan Jacobs

I enjoy:

• walking
• conversing
• listening to music
• singing
• corresponding
• writing poetry
• praying
• lifting weights
• coordinating social efforts
• making & launching model rockets
• watching movies
• reading
• cycling

There’s no such thing as an intrinsically loving act. So don’t pray that everything you do be intrinsically loving. Pray that you do everything in love.

“And as she said this she had the feeling for almost the first time in her life that she was acting a part.”

— Sally Carroll Happer in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Ice Palace” (1920)

My reflections on excerpts from Do We Need the New Testament?: Letting the Old Testament Speak for Itself (2015) by John Goldingay:

A novel summary of the Gospel in light of the Old Testament:

In a sense God did nothing new in Jesus. God was simply taking to its logical and ultimate extreme the activity in which he had been involved throughout the First Testament story.

[…]

One might almost say that God had to provoke humanity into its ultimate act of rebellion in order to have the opportunity to act in a way that refused to let this ultimate act of rebellion have the last word.

[…]

My argument is that the execution and the resurrection were indeed the logical end term of a stance that God had been taking through First Testament times, so that the First Testament story does give an entirely adequate account of who God is and of the basis for relating to God. Because of who God has always been, God was already able to be in relationship with his people, despite their rebellion. God has...

At the end of the day, my belief that Jesus is alive comes from hearsay. I need to be OK with that. Am I?

The Bible is a reference book—a reference book authorized by God through His people. That “reference” status contains not enough information for us to gauge the historicity of its narratives or the authority of its imperatives. It is authoritative, but that doesn’t make every apparently historical account or even divinely issued command in it so.

Why is it wicked and adulterous to seek a sign? Is Sullivan wicked and adulterous in “waiting for proof” of You?

“It is a sin when someone knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it” (James 4:17).

Community is built, not found. Therefore, stay for UBBC’s little post-service social time even though it is on Zoom.