I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. We went to my parents' home. My brother and sister were there with their families.

sister 3, cousin, cousin, sister 2, sister 1
 
And with me running around behind, tickling everyone
 
The holidays were fun, but I'm looking forward to getting back to writing.

rlp

So here’s what you do. You take a phrase or a word or a short teaching out of the Bible. Something like “The book of life,” or “The Son of Man,” or “The Light of the World,” or “No one comes to the Father but by me.” These phrases could mean anything. They meant something in their day, surely, but the deepest and most scholarly study in the world cannot unravel exactly what they meant.
 
But you. You somehow know the truth. You take these phrases with no study at all, and you fill them with your theology, like someone filling helium balloons at a carnival. Then you hang a little basket below your balloons and float away, so delighted in the complex theological construct that you’ve put together. And from your elevated position you lay burdens on people that you could never keep yourself. Lightning bolts thrown down from

Greetings everyone,
 
So I've been at the public library all day, working with CCblogs and High Calling Blogs. I finished a piece for Christian Century. I thought it was done, but the ending needs work.
 
I think I'm about played out with blogs and writing. We're going to visit my folks for a couple of days. I might post something or might not until after Christmas. It's a good thing for me to just let go of that for the time being.
 
Merry Christmas everyone.
 
rlp

My wife's jewelry, sold at GracefullThings.com, can still be delivered by Christmas. Jeanene is taking orders up until Sunday night for shipping Monday morning, Priority Mail. She has some really cool new stuff. She's taken some classes and now hammers and solders her own metal pieces. She's also making matching earrings for most of her stuff.
 
I think her stuff is INSANELY under-priced, considering each piece is a unique creation. But she doesn't listen to me. Check it out!
 

rlp
 

I was interviewed by Chad Crawford for a podcast at Homebrewed Christianity. I was in the back yard on my mobile phone. We kept having to pause when planes flew over. He edited those parts out.
 
We talked about the Christmas stories and some of the background information about them. The two current Christmas stories were born about 12 years ago. I got to looking in my old files and I found a dramatic piece I wrote about Gabriel's visit to Mary. I had forgotten about it. It wasn't bad, considering I wrote it before I was writing seriously.
 
Next year I just have to do the wisemen story and get the Shepherd story in print somehow. Then I can follow that up with the Simeon story and the Gabriel story. Both were written 10 or 12 years ago.
 
Writer's block? Are you kidding me? There is so much to write. I can't get to it all.

rlp

A Seinfeld character once said that Tuesday, unlike all the other days of the week, has no distinctive "feel" to it. I think it does. It feels clean and hopeful. For a minister who works on Sundays, Tuesday is early enough in the week that anything is possible. For this particular minister, there is time to be indulgent and give myself to writing.
 

I've been in a Foy mood lately. I'm hoping to get some time this

For those unfamiliar with the Foy stories, you can find a list of them here. The context for this story is found in the collection of stories called "Foy's New Life."
 
On the Monday after their date, Charlene showed up at Foy’s cubicle. Charlene was an attractive, professional looking woman, who had been at Babcock Wellman since the very beginning. She knew all the inside information about the office and had her hands in a lot of

We knew something was wrong with Lillian’s eyes shortly after she was born. One of them was turned inward. We assumed it could be fixed. We thought we’d hand her over to a doctor, and he or she would fix her. The day they told us her eyes would never be right is burned into my memory. Jeanene and I sat staring at each other in disbelief. No parent wants to hear the word “never.” ...Read the rest at CCblogs.
 

Perhaps you were waiting the inevitable lawsuit following the Marine pilot's crash into a California neighborhood. Korean immigrant Dong Yun Yoon, a very devout Christian, isn't interested in lawsuits and has already forgiven the pilot. Moreover, he is concerned that the pilot may have long-lasting grief and sorrow over this terrible event. Read the Story

Hat tip to Paul Soupiset.