I passed the three-year mark of copying the New Testament long-hand just recently, though if I’m honest, 2020 was shit for my Bible writing. It was crap for just about everything, I’d say. We made some big shifts in light of Covid: shortly after taking on a new, full-time professor job in March 2020, school released for spring break and never resumed. Then this past school year we decided a month in to switch to homeschooling my son.
As you might imagine, brain space has been minimal, but I’m still chugging along. We moved into a new home back in March 2021, and having an office space makes all the difference when it’s time to hunker down and write.
So where am I now in my writing? Acts. The progress feels nonexistent, but dang if I haven’t filled up a mess of notebooks and run through a mountain of pens. Acts has taken a long while (I’m on chapter 19 out of 28), and I miss Jesus. I’m sure that sounds really weird, but I just miss Jesus. Moving from the gospels and into Acts felt like a loss. Maybe that’s another reason I wasn’t particularly motivated to write in 2020.
I’ve learned a ton, no doubt. Even though I’ve had trouble burying myself in books these last several years (Thanks, Trump!), I seem to still be able to plow through theology books fairly regularly. Most recently I listened to How the Bible Actually Works by Peter Enns, and it was a joy. Peter Enns does a lot of great stuff including the Bible for Normal People podcast and YouTube channel. I love his snark, his wealth of knowledge, and his willingness to stare down the big questions like….WHY did Jesus have to die again? Why THAT way? What did that accomplish and how?
Case in point…I just left this post open for 20 minutes while I watched a video on Pete’s favorite Bibles and translations, and now I have $139 worth of new Bibles, including the Jewish Annotated New Testament, in my Amazon cart. I love/hate how this happens.
Those are the kinds of questions I can get onboard with. Other staple teachers: Bishop Michael Curry, Sarah Bessey (always), Tim Mackie, Michael Heiser, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Jeff Chu, Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, and so many others.
That’s about all for now. I could ramble a good bit, but I’ll try to save those bits and craft them into actual posts.
How’s your spiritual life doing?
Rowdy and Redeemed 
It is good to see a post from you and I am happy to be reminded of Peter Enns. I need to find that podcast.
LikeLike
Spiritual life is slowly ramping up. My high school youth group graduated so my Sundays look different now. Asking for guidance on my next step. Some want me to continue leading high school but I would want to stay with them for the entire four years and that is a stretch these days. I was with my last group from 6th through 12th. Thursday services at my church opened again and I LOVE going on Thursday instead of busy Sunday. They bring in food trucks. It’s fun. We are doing an At The Movies series where they show clips from movies and match it to scripture. They make popcorn too. It’s really good.
LikeLike
Missing Jesus sounds about right. I really missed him once Paul showed up. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on that.
Did I miss that you got a full-time gig or did you already have one and this was a shift? For some reason, I thought you were part-time before. If so, congrats on the full-time gig! If not, congrats on the new job! Congrats either way is what I’m saying.
My spiritual life has grown by leaps and bounds because I have done quite a bit of work re: my childhood. But it also seems like I’m in the same place in a lot of ways. Which is normal, I guess. Thanks for the check in. It’s good to hear from you.
LikeLike