There’s telescope magnification and microscope magnification, and it’s blasphemy to magnify God like a microscope. To magnify God like a microscope is to take something tiny and make it look bigger than it is. If you try to do that to God, you blaspheme. But a telescope puts its lens on unimaginable expanses of greatness and tries to just help them look like what they are. That’s what a telescope is for.
I’m excited to roll out something that a few of us have been working on for some months now. It is the result of three realizations:
- There are a lot of people who would make great bloggers if they had someone to help walk them through the process.
- I truly enjoy the entire blogging process.
- I can help coach other people to start blogging or improve their own blogging efforts.
As a result, a couple of friends and I are launching a company called Blogsicle. It is now a registered LLC and the idea is that we do the work so that you can enjoy the writing. There are a lot of logistics that go into blogging that the typical blogger doesn’t have the skills to match or interest to learn. That’s where we come in. We will do all the leg work from design to setup, to improvements, to ongoing coaching. Basically a one-stop-shop for your blog. And this isn’t your run of the mill mommy blog that looks like everyone else’s. This is a legit, big boy blog with the bells and whistles. I’m excited to have this as a side hobby to what I already get to do and to be able to more officially help give people a foundation to share their voice.
The actual dig in Israel that the book is based on. It was much more fascinating to read the story after I’d seen the real thing. (click to zoom)
I had read a handful of books pertaining to the Holy Land in preparation for my Israel trip in January. Most of them I started and finished in short order. One book was different. The Source, a novel by James Michener, came highly recommended so I went for it. I had glanced to see that it was over 900 pages but I didn’t think much about it.
Let’s just say my Kindle showed 55% read for a long, long time.
That was the point of the novel where I had to step away and read some other books. Like I’ve written about earlier, I’m a big believer in reading momentum and this book was messing me up hardcore. By the time I was at 55%, I had come and gone to Israel and had other books that I needed to read.
Nonetheless, I committed last week to focusing on my return to The Source and to making sure I put the effort to read the whole thing. I’m very glad I did. While the history, the complex social dynamics, and Michener’s elaborate word selection (words like “augury” and “uxorious”) don’t make for an easy read, it is definitely a valuable experience to dramatically improve your understanding of the Holy Land and of Judaism. This book helped me to put a lot of things in perspective.
After hearing a lot of talk about the latest book from Mark Batterson we decided to go through The Circle Maker together with our life group from Central. I had the chance to meet Mark when he spoke at a conference at Central a few years back and I’m excited that he’ll be returning for our prayer conference again next year. As becomes readily apparent in this book, Mark’s journey with God and his ministry career can be unpacked through moments of prayer. He certainly practices what he preaches.
Prayer isn’t an area where I feel as disciplined as I want to be so there was much to chew on for me and much to encourage me. If this has also been an area of struggle for you than I’d highly recommend this book.
This post is part of my series through A Year with C.S. Lewis.
Here are my favorite quotes from the assorted C.S. Lewis books that are covered in the month of April in the book.
Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go—let it die away—go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow—and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life.
