Field Report #040

Good morning!

This post may mark the beginning of a more sporadic time in blog posting. Not that I was particularly consistent in the past, but I'm moving toward keeping my thoughts more exclusively in my pocket notebooks, as opposed to putting a lot of things up here. I still have several posts I can see myself making in the near future, such as NBA Finals analysis, Log and Jotter product review, ESV The Psalms product review, etc. But not so much in terms of Field Reports or theological writing.

We'll see what happens, maybe the extra time available in summer will lead to more posts than I currently expect. But like the dark legend himself, my actions and plans must ultimately drift into obscurity and shadow.

Psalms are at the heart. Haven't made a fitness breakthrough yet, but it is developing. 0 Entertainment is pretty good overall, despite a small off day today. 

My one piece of advice - and I can't say for certain how universally this applies (but boy does it work for me) is just pray the Psalms, out loud, throughout the day, every day. Find a straightforward program that has you doing this, and then just stick to it.

Why? I'll put it this way:

I've been wandering through the desert in the midafternoon heat, sometimes aimless, sometimes frantically chasing mirages. Dry, cracked lips eating stale crackers and choking down some kind of warm, thick syrup. Sun beating down on my head. Beside me is a cool, clean, clear stream, with wide green trees offering shade at its shore.

Stop and picture that.

A few times a day, and once a week, I stop by, kneel down, and take good long sip. Then it's back to running around the desert like chaff in the wind, looking for that shimmering shape in the distance that turns out to be just another pile of sand.

But here's God's revolutionary idea in the very first Psalm: Leave the desert, take a comfortable seat leaning against a tree next to the stream, and dip your hands into the cool running water. Bring it up to your mouth and take a drink. Then another. Then another. Then another. And live your whole life right there next to that chuckling stream, turning back toward the water whenever you drift a little too far out into the desert, chasing sand.