The Nice Chameleon

I really shouldn't. I shouldn't do this. Every year, I start with such grand dreams of reading all my listed books, and every year, I end up reading a bunch of other books instead. Not that that's a bad thing; I just feel silly each year as I re-read the list and realize I've barely read anything I'd planned to read. When I looked at the beginning of my list from last year , I was pleasantly surprised. At some point last year, I read all of the books listed, even though I'd long forgotten about my original list. All total, I read 30 books last year, ranging from a few of my fifth-grader's chapter books to the entire Bible. Here are my stats as of December 25, according to Goodreads. (I've finished two books since then, so I imagine the stats will be updated at some point.) Books read: 28 Pages read; 10,714 Shortest book: Lois Lowry, Number the Stars Longest book: The New Inductive Study Bible Average book length: 382 pages I imagine that, if I didn't

Lately it seems I'm seeing a lot (tweets, articles, etc.) about Bible reading and biblical literacy. I haven't added to the conversation because I am a theological nobody, a lurker on various blogs who is relatively new to Twitter and has few followers. On top of that, I'm a relatively new Christian, though not new to Christianity. But I've been a little surprised at how many Christians are saying they rarely read the Bible, or that they read it in phases (every day for a month, then a few months of not opening it). And many have read only bits and pieces. I would expect this from someone who isn't a Christian, but these are Christians saying this. I honestly don't get this. Maybe I will once I have more years of being a Christian behind me. But I can't get enough of the Bible. It's all I want to read. I get up at 5:00 every morning, sometimes earlier, so I can read the Bible. I gave my life to Jesus last October and immediately began reading through the

People are acting really hateful today. I'm not seeing it on Facebook, but I've checked Twitter a few times ... and whew! I'm newly amazed at how utterly cruel we can become in our self-righteousness. There is another thing I'm seeing, too. The people who aren't being cruel are talking about how they would never be so cruel as to cheer for a leader getting COVID, who would never be so hateful as to wish a sitting U.S. President would suffer and die. I imagine they wouldn't, but I find that thinking that way ("I would NEVER do THAT ...") can be dangerous. Because I don't think we can think that way without some degree of pride in our own personal righteousness. I am reminded of the Solzhenitsyn's words in The Gulag Archipelago: The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either--but right through every human heart--and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it os

I am coming out of my blog-cave today. I have had a LOT of thoughts lately on a LOT of things. I imagine all zero of my readers have as well, since there is much to think about. I haven't had much opportunity to write in my journal (which is where I usually deposit my thoughts, since it's the only thing patient enough to listen to them), so I'm writing them all down here. I am seeing more and more of this concept of, "You can't possibly know what it feels like to be ___." Usually it's directed toward a white person who can't possibly know what it is to be a POC, or oppressed, etc. Sometimes it's directed to a man who has no clue of what women go through day to day. Whenever I hear this, I think, "Do people not read or write anymore?" I mean, isn't that one of the purposes, or at least one of the benefits, of good literature--to take a person out of themselves, out of their small "real world," and into the world, thoughts, an

I wrote this one for Facebook but decided not to post it there because I came up with something better. But I don't want to lose this one, so here it is. Let beer be for those who are perishing,     wine for those who are in anguish! Let them drink and forget their poverty     and remember their misery no more. - Proverbs 31:6-7 I know, this isn't what people generally think about when they think "Proverbs 31 wife." This ceramic astronaut is a keepsake from my old job. Who knows why I took a picture of it with a glass of wine. Probably because I'm an avid taker of random pictures. I found the photo in my phone today while running a search on the word "drink." At first I scrolled right past it; my brain tends to scroll right past memories of that old job when they come up. But then I went back to the picture and thought about how my unhappiness at that job , for those last two years at least, resulted in a whole lot more wine-drinking on my

Here are a couple of articles, both by Robin Schumacher, that I found today on the need for apologetics education. Again, saving them here for later. The Tragedy of the Even Dumber Church (published 2020) The Tragedy of the Dumb Church (published 2007)