You can find some of my favorite quotes from Till We Have Faces here.

Today has been one of those days where you don't know how all of the stuff got packed in. You just never know where the day will take you.

The morning started out with singing a duet at church. This is pretty much the first time I've sung in church in years. I have my reasons. They may not be good, but I have them. Having said that, I couldn't say "no" in this situation, as I was asked to sing with the sister of a good friend who might have beaten me up otherwise. It went well. Ironically, I spent most of the morning thinking about how God is glorified in our weaknesses and how often at church it's all about playing to strengths and how unwilling I can be/am to be perceived as weak but how that's when God would get the most glory. Or something like that.

Then it was Sunday School, which, thankfully, I didn't teach. Then it was a nice lunch at Zippy's with a friend. Sundays are for a hot dog covered in Zippy's chili, let me tell you. Then it was to Ala Moana to do a minute or two of shopping. Somewhere in this part of the morning I finished Lewis's Till We Have Faces. I had totally forgotten the ending of the book, so I was pleasantly surprised by the wrap-up.

This afternoon was time spent at the pool. Did my requisite laps and then the hot tub for a bit before getting out and just relaxing in the shade. A little later, some friends came over and partook of the facilities as well. I am thankful to have a place where I can entertain. So had some good conversation there, which is always welcome. Somewhere in there I started reading (for like the fourth time) Lewis's The Great Divorce. Not a new copy mind you (like the image on the side). This one is crinkly and such a product of the 70s. Great story. I'm trying to use this story and the one from Faces to get a handle on what God might want to say to me about this coming Sunday.

So now I'm washing pants and ironing shirts and trying to get ready for tomorrow. School is mostly a wrap this week. Most of network TV is, too. Bring on the summer?

I take my inability to sit down and write things out here to be a good thing mostly. It means that I'm staying busy and doing good things and spending time with quality people doing quality stuff. So, as much as it saddens me that I haven't written much of consequence here lately, there have been many moments of consequence that have happened without being recorded.

Tomorrow I sing in church. First time to do that in an awful long time.

Monday is my last official day of classes. After that it's exams and a lot of paperwork to complete.

I have a sermon-of-sorts to prepare for next Sunday. I've had a couple of thoughts, but I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go with it.

I've almost finished Till We Have Faces. There's so much of the book that I don't remember. That's always both a good and bad thing: bad because you should remember, good because it reads fresh.

A few days ago I started listening to Jordan Seng's sermons in chronological order dating back to 2005. I'm pretty pumped about it. I'm already about six sermons in, and I am definitely learning to see things well.

God is good and I am blessed in spite of myself. He is worthy of great praise!

Sometimes I think I have it all backwards. . . I spent most of my week hanging out: ball games, school stuff, and the like. Weekend comes and it's like solitude! Either way, it was a really good week with lots of fun moments both in and out of the classroom.

Saturday and Sunday were good housekeeping days. Washed clothes. Washed dishes. Went to the grocery store. Caught up on The Office and Grey's Anatomy. Caught some other first-run television. Spent Sunday night doing some mini-marathon grading. Went to church at St. Andrew's and then Sunday school at the regular house of worship. Listened to an old Nite-Life sermon that I downloaded a number of weeks ago about joy (and why Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus). And I swam. Doing a good bit of swimming these days, usually just after getting home from school or mid-afternoon on the weekend. Got to get in better shape, and the gym just isn't as convenient as the nice pool downstairs.

I've entered into my last full week of classes, and that has me getting all philosophical and reflective. I have a "ditty" of a "sermon" to flesh out for a couple of Sundays from now. Grades to do. Things to write. Things to keep clean. Things to order and things to trash. Elections to run and ballots to count. The days, as Calvin said, are just packed.

Got the latest issue of TIME magazine today (still waiting for the new EW). This week the magazine shared its "Top 100 Influential People in the World" list. Lists are always interesting, especially those that cross a range of subject areas. As I often do, worked backwards through the magazine. Most of the names I didn't recognize too much. That's a good thing: such an issue reminds us that there's such a large world out there. I knew Richard Branson and the YouTube guys. Steve Jobs. DiCaprio. I've been meaning to read a book by David Mitchell ever since I read about Black Swan Green but just haven't gotten around to it.

I knew most of the entertainers. The scientists and thinkers not so much. Al Gore, sure. Richard Dawkins: yes. Found it interesting that his "entry" was written by Michael Behe, who wrote Darwin's Black Box and who, I believe, spoke at Union back in the day. Then the blurb on Lisa Randall caught my eye. She's one of those physicists that believes there are more dimensions out there than we can perceive, which I think is one of the coolest theories out there (along the lines of string theory, I suppose). A "3-D sinkhole in a higher-dimensional universe" indeed. I knew some of the heroes and pioneers, but I'm kind of ashamed that I didn't know more. Guess that's what such a magazine is for.

Speaking of magazines, got into a fun discussion with the school librarian and another friend about "getting rid of" the print copy of National Geographic Magazine. I've never been a full-on fan of the magazine, but it did keep me occupied while waiting to get my haircut down at Tex's Barber Shop in Springfield (nothing like a hot-lather and razor on the back of the neck). So, with my friend, I defended the need to have the hard copy. Digital isn't everything. And it surely isn't the only thing. That's part of why I like getting TIME in the mail everyweek. Something to hold onto.