It had rained on and off today after church. Temperatures were in the high 40s and low 50s. Skies were gray. But a short hike was just what I needed.

I put the leash on my old hiking buddy Brewster, our old gray shepherd of many years. He looks like an old wolf when he’s out in the woods. He loves these hills and creeks.

We took off for a short afternoon hike. The creeks were running strong; the deer were out.

I don’t know how folks are not moved by such things. It’s my soul food.

Hope you enjoy some pictures as much as Brewster and I enjoyed the hike and feel of the creeks rolling.

Returned home after Sunday school, church, and lunch.

Saw this fellow browsing in back yard.

This morning before Sunday school and church I walked onto the upper deck and looked east after the storms had passed.

Completed Delbanco’s biography of Melville this week. It helped solidify my appreciation for Moby Dick, Billy Budd, and “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” especially.

I’m reading Moby Dick again in 2023, and like the best of the classics, it reaps massive dividends upon deep slow rereadings.

If you appreciate Moby Dick and Melville’s other masterpieces, Delbanco’s bio is worth your read.

My friend Jim shared with me again. Enjoy.

Not unlike a lot of Christian chaplains and believers, I would imagine, I have lots of Bibles. And I always read with a pencil, pen, or marker in hand, even when reading books other than Scripture. So my Bibles are marked up. Some passages are marked for homilies. I may have tiny sermon outlines in the marginalia. I may have people’s names that I know about written by a particular verse or paragraph. I have other passages underlined that I have memorized. On and on it goes. What follows below is a short story of encouragement from reading from one of my old Bibles today. It involves a man God brought into my life during a deployment in Iraq and of how God and my friend still minister.

This morning I was in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians as part of my time in Scripture. But for some reason, I used one of my older Bibles that is falling apart. I used it for years as my main Bible from which to study and from which to craft homilies, etc. It has tons of my notes in it. As I came near to the end of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, the pages were all marked up with different colors of ink, and Post-it notes, and marginalia. And when I got to verse 58 of 1 Corinthians 15, a flood of memories washed over me, and I was about to get even more encouragement that I could have hoped for. Follow me.

Context: 1 Corinthians 15 is, of course, one of the New Testament’s greatest apologetics for the bodily resurrection of the crucified Christ. It is nearly 60 verses of empirical evidence of Jesus’ resurrection and of the guarantee of God raising all either unto life in Christ or unto condemnation due to rejecting the gospel. It’s one of those chapters in the Bible where even pagans read it and are moved either unto belief or hardened further into unbelief. How do I know? Because I have seen how people react in services where I have read the whole chapter stratight through and I have watched them. The Spirit acts upon people and one can see spiritual warfare occur right before one’s eyes.

In verse 58 of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul gives the imperative: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58 ESV). My copy was underlined and emphasized and all of a sudden, a deluge of memories washed over me of the stalwart believers and buddies God sent me during that deployment. Then, at that very moment, I received a text message from one of those guys. He writes devotionals that he sends out to folks based upon his time in studying Scripture. True to my friend’s nature, it was a message of encouragment, of truth unvarnished, but with his remarkable gifting for motivating people unto action. I’ve known some bundles of energy in my life, but this friend of mine rivals any of them for sheer will and motivation. He’s as tough as they come and there is no quit in him, as the saying goes.

Encouragement: Why did I receive that text message from my friend at just the moment I was reading 1 Corinthians 15:58? Why, when I was letting all the emotions and memories and past Bible studies and choir rehearsals and devotionals and sermons and times of the Lord’s Supper, etc., why then?

The pagan could look at this and go, “Bah, humbug! It’s sheer accident, man. Get over it.” Okay, that could be. But then, if one is to be logically consistent, could I not turn around and say to the pagan, “Bah, humbug. You are a sheer accident. And your counsel is mere matter in motion. Dispense with you, you self-contradictory blob of protoplasm!”? See, the unbliever feels like he matters, that his words matter, and that I ought to pay attention to him. But if he were logically consistent, he is nothing. So he should just hush up. But it is interesting how they don’t hush up, the vocal bitter pagans. They just keep yammering.

But there I was … still looking at 1 Corinthians 15:58 in my old worn Bible. And I was remembering the ways my friend in Iraq motivated me amidst trials in ministry, and of how God grew the body of believers there, and of how those whom God gripped are still fighting the good faith of the faith. Paul’s words of encouragement are so clear: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV).

I think I know why I received that text message from my friend at just this moment, and just when I was in this particular copy of Scripture, one of those where I’ve all kinds of notes by 1 Corinthians 15:58, and of why my buddy is still engaged in ministry, and of how iron sharpens iron, and on and on. Yes, I think I know why. And I bet you know why, too.

I suppose most folks’ resolutions for 2023 (if given to resolutions) involve laudable goals–exercising more, improving one’s diet, sleeping better, etc. All good goals, I readily concede. But I have learned that nothing repays my labor, time, and mind–my soul–quite like reading. Specifically, reading well.

Reading the great books and living with them via a contemplative life is precious. And finding a select few who share the unique joys of reading deeply is a joy. I’ve met several via our Sunday school class who bring encouragement and interaction by way of a life of reading deeply and reading well.

Below are books I’m reading in 2023. Some, like Moby Dick, I have read several times before. But the more I dive into (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun) Moby Dick, the more I discover its depths. Books of that caliber are inexhaustible. Other books I am reading for the very first time. And then there are some authors whose oeuvre I aim to complete.

If you’re so inclined, join me. And if you’ve volumes you recommend, let me know. Other than talking of books and/or ideas that interest me via my YouTube channel and my little blog, I don’t do social media. I found that social media was prone to being quite unsociable, petty, and snarky. It tended to steal my joys rather than increase them. Plus, it was just a waste of valuable time.

And I’m old enough to know that time is short, that our days are numbered, and I’ve only one lifetime to do what I was created to do.

All that to say this: Below is a glimpse into some of my 2023 reading regimen. I hope it encourages you to perhaps read more, yes, but especially to read well.

Biographies:

The Narnian by Alan Jacobs

Dickens: A Biography by Fred Kaplan

The Life of John Milton by Wilson

Jonathan Edwards by Marsden

Classics of Literary Fiction:

Little Dorritt by Dickens

Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez

Everything That Rises Must Converge by O’Connor

Stories from the Attic by William Gay

War and Peace by Tolstoy

Snow Falling on Cedars by Guterson

Moby Dick by Melville

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway

The Mansion by Faulkner

Love by Toni Morrison

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Hawthorne (complete)

History/Historical Fiction:

Twilight Warriors by Kitfield

The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings (1947-2005)

The 13th Valley by Del Vecchio

Yesterday as I hiked up a ridge south of our home, I took a couple of pictures with my iPhone–visual reminders to me of what I love, of those I love, and of why I do what I do.

Press on.

After church today, my wife and I went to one of our favorite local places for lunch. The kids were away, and so we had quiet to ourselves. We got home and walked the dogs. She walked Lady down the road and I took Brewster for a jaunt in the woods and down by the creeks. Then I hit the trail for a few miles after the sun burned the clouds away.

Ascending the hills, a group of joyriders on four-wheelers sped up the ridge behind me, loudly climbing their way to the perches above.

I kept ascending another half mile or so and again I heard the group. They had a loud speaker blaring at the rocky perches at the top. I took a spur to the north and could see out. A flock of vultures threw shadows on the trail. I’d passed a rotting deer carcass down by the creek earlier that Brewster sniffed out. Perhaps the vultures were circling that, I was not sure.

Walking the spur the rocks were slick at times with bright moss.

Thankful for day one of 2023. Grateful for simple pleasures. Cognizant of beauty and aiming to steward well.

Sorry for the intense face. But I love this book.