My Bad

Good thing “Spelling” isn’t one of the categories of competition…

My Future Facial Faux Pas

I give myself 50/50 odds of actually graduating come this May.  But in case I do, I’m taking suggestions on what facial hair style to sport at the ceremonies.  I’ve included some options below, but of course these are just to help get the imaginative process going.

A few considerations:

1.  I’ve never participated in a graduation ceremony clean shaven, so that’s a real option this time ’round.

2.  I’m likely going to hear the Avett Brothers the weekend before graduation, in which case a gnarly beard would be a fitting homage.

3.  I’m scheduled for a really long bike ride the weekend before graduation, in which case a gnarly beard would be really itchy.

4.  I’m told I look skeevy and/or like a biker when I sport handlebars.  I don’t like looking skeevy or a like a biker.

5.  I just bought new gear, and already regret not going all in and buying a straight razor.  More use means more reason to make that purchase.

My Summer Soundtrack

My New Gear

When I was a child, I thought like a child, I lathered like a child, I shaved like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

- Paul the Apostle, in his first (lost) letter to the church at Corinth, “How to Shave Like a Man”

My Weekly Moment of Ellis – 1

So this semester I’m taking a course on the “Theology of the Gospels” with Prof. E. Earle Ellis.  He is something of a living legend in the field of New Testament and especially here at SWBTS.  He fought in WWII, tells stories about hitchhiking through Israel, has published widely and is 80+ years old.  Since this will be my last chance to sit in on Ellis’ lectures, I thought I’d start a series of posts and share the wisdom.  These will cross the spectrum – some will be funny, others flippant, but all brilliant – because, well, they’ll all be from Ellis.  So here it is, my weekly moment of Ellis:

Avoid jargon, “in” words and sociological gobbledy gook.  Use clear English understandable to a general reader not in the field.

My New Blog

Yup, a mere christian no longer.  It had long been near death, but I was too busy with other things to finish it off and put it out of its misery.  I didn’t intend to start another blog, but with my notorious inability to return phone calls and emails, and with the impending complication of different time zones, I figured this might be the best way to keep friends and family up to speed on the happenings of life.

So if your RSS feed is still directing you here from my previous blog, I regret to inform you that this new location will not carry on the tradition of engagement with serious theological issues – no more schematics of Christian history, scholarly reviews of  important New Testament monographs, or cogent articulations of the relationship between scripture and tradition.  No, this new location will be much more pedestrian – where I’m at, what I’m doing, and random things I’ve been thinking about.  In other words, prepare to be bored.