Snowball Fights, Sitting in the Dark, and Compulsive Book Buying

I'm still plugging away on "Higher Grounds: When God Steps into the Here and Now," the third book in the "Finding Common Ground Series: A Collection of Essays About Love, Loss, and Faith." I don't have a release date yet, but my guess would be late March or early April.

A couple of weeks ago, I signed a contract with Barbour Publishing to write a prayer book for them. I'll release more details later.

Now, let's get to this week's thoughts about slowing down and living deeper:

• Loved this blog post from Austin Kleon about a notebook being a good place to capture bad ideas.

 

• On Wednesday morning, we got an inch or two of snow, which prompted the youth pastor at my church to cancel normal Wednesday night activities in favor of ... a snowball fight/snowman building party – complete with hot chocolate and a devotional time. I have to tell you, I almost went. 

 

• The Collected Letters of C.S Lewis, Volume III includes correspondence Lewis sent to a child who wrote to him about the Chronicles of Narnia. One line really stands out: "I'm so thankful that you realized the 'hidden story' in the Narnian books. It is odd, children nearly always do, grown ups hardly ever." 

 

• I'm currently reading Awakening: The Chronicles of Formation (Volume 1) by Shannon Kuzmich [the e-book is currently free on Amazon]. In her essay, "Sitting in the Dark," she encourages readers to find a place without any windows, sound, or light, and then sit there for twenty minutes. She has a closet she uses for this practice, and God meets her there. But she struggles because she has nothing to distract her.
  
  She says, "Sitting in the dark feels like being trapped in a tunnel of chaos. The opening behind me has been sealed off, leaving just one way out – ahead. Up ahead are rage, fear, feelings of inferiority, bitterness, injustice, arrogance, competitiveness, and selfishness. The only way into Grace Land is through the tunnel and out the other side."

 

• I had two long, separate conversations with a couple of friends this past week about matters of family and faith. I came away from both feeling encouraged. You can't beat breaking bread with a friend and talking about the things that matter most.

 

• The Guardian ran an essay this week that you might find interesting: Bibliomania: the strange history of compulsive book buying

 

• "Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of." - Charles Spurgeon

If you like what you're reading here and want to support it, then join my email list, or consider buying a book or becoming a patron (all patrons receive free copies of my e-books as they are released as a thank you for the support).

Have a great weekend!