First Book of the Summer: Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne (Janice and I are reading this together, to be followed by Grace Based Parenting)

Books I’m Packing for Our Trip to Oklahoma+Kansas: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon,The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, and Diceroscope No.1 by Pusch Ridge Christian Academy’s Creative Writing 2.0 (three novels! a literary anthology!)

Last Tuesday, Janice assembled IKEA furniture for the girls’ room while I consumed Sprite, Saltines, and soup on the couch. While parked on the sofa, I watched Senna, a documentary about Ayrton Senna, a Formula One racing legend.

The film is 80% old race footage, 15% old interviews, and 5% home video of the Brazilian family hanging out on boats and beaches. It’s amazing because Senna is a kind of racing savant, complete with a nemesis (that’s Alain Proust, “The Professor,” a cold and calculating character of a racing rival). The story feels written, not lived. Senna is great from youth, a hero on a quest who faces turns and reversals, obstacles and wrecks, politics and spirituality. I couldn’t help but wonder when Wes Anderson will latch onto this story, making Senna an inspiration for a quirky racing movie, much like Jacques Cousteau was for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Senna is a character. He is a man. He made me think about why we view sporting greatness in the way we do. Some of the old interview footage is the Man On The Street kind from Brazil. The citizens there repeatedly juxtapose bleak living conditions with the joy of being from the same nation as Ayrton Senna, World Champion. He holds pours champagne on his head, holds golden trophies aloft, and waves his country’s flag. They refer to him as their joy.

The story is beautifully wrought. It made me forget about the fact that I am not interested in the racing as a sport whatsoever, and allowed me to focus on the fact that we are all living stories, chasing cups, hoping to win, fighting through defeat, wondering whether or not we should keep going, doing what we love because it is something God made us to do.

via minimalmovieposters: Senna by Paul Johnstone

Summer Reading:I have four books I’d like to finish, a stack of seven waiting for me on the top shelf of my bookcase, and three more ordered from Amazon today.

Summer Writing:On the way home from the Second Mile Men’s Retreat, my friend Lawson voiced an observation that rang true at the time and lingers as something of an unintentional challenge. He acknowledged that I enjoyed both reading and writing; he then told me that it seemed like I’ve got reading down, but that I need to work on the writing. That is correct, and I want to make sure I do something about it this summer.

Generally speaking, I probably average at least one new writing project idea per week. They are usually about the size and weight of a solid magazine/web article/short story. They can often be sorted into creative nonfiction, and sometimes into short fiction. They are always enticing, full of potential, things I want to pursue but feel I just don’t have the time, etc.

Nope. I’m going to make time this summer. I love writing, and I would rather do it than not.

So: Discipline! Looking for idle time that can be turned into fruitful time! Production! That’s the idea.

1. Ashley’s “Enjoying God + PRCA Greatest Hits” morning devotion.
2. Daniel walking into first hour sporting a bowtie.
3. 5th Hour’s ridiculous Research Project Success Checklist, including such items as “Motivation,” “Shock Collar,” “Listen to Eye of the Tiger,” “Don’t use Wikipedia…as a citation,” “Coffee is your friend,” “<—in moderate amounts,” and “Prayer.”
4. All the final submissions pouring in for Diceroscope.
5. Getting the HNRS Research Checklist done
6. after eating carne asada with the Guatemalan exchange students
7. and finding out that we might have a sweet Fall Break trip in the works.
8. Chilling at the new Cartel for the first time
9. and seeing four Second Milers while there (I’ll try a Gibraltar sometime, Chad).
10. Learning to spell swagger like this: M-I-N-I-V-A-N.

A test run of a possible summer/early semester assignment for next year’s Honors Sophs.

Last night, I hung out with a bunch of Second Mile dads at Derek’s house to watch a bunch of Second Mile kids during the Iron & Iron Ladies’ Night. I noticed an interesting book on Derek’s bookshelf: The Message//REMIX: Solo. I’m all for interesting books, The Message, and Eugene Peterson, so I asked Derek if it was his.

Derek said, “No, it’s not mine! It’s pink!” The spine and the back cover, which are not visible in the above Amazon link, are indeed hot pink, and the book belongs to Jen, not Derek. I mumbled something about punk sometimes involving pink, smirked, then went to look up the book on my phone.

As Amazon is designed to do, looking up Solo brought up another interesting book: The Message//REMIX: Pause. This one divvies up the Bible into one Old Testament passage and one New Testament reading per day over the course of a year. My immediate thought was that it sounded like a great way to begin (OT!) and end (NT!) my days in a consistent, regular manner.

In my post about prayer journaling, I talked about needing to develop consistent habits in my spiritual life. For Persevering in the Second Mile, I just read the Discipline chapter in The Character of Leadership. Jeff Iorg suggests a year-long project aimed at developing discipline in a specific area of life that, well, needs discipline. I saw Pause as a way to develop this, so I told Janice about it when I got home—and we ordered a pair of the Pause versions.

Here’s why I’m enthusiastic about the idea of reading OT + NT passages every day for a year along with my wife:

I’m reading it with my wife. This is more than just a relationship development intention. I’m a team player. I do better at staying consistent when I’m staying consistent alongside someone else. If I’m going to develop consistent habits, I need Janice. One of her StrengthsFinder top five is Consistency. She’s the perfect partner for this little adventure, and not just because she lives in the same house as me. She’s good at something I need to get better at.

I’m reading it with my wife. Okay, it is a relationship development intention. I am anticipating great conversation with the woman I have committed to live alongside for the duration of my life on earth. I want to strengthen our marriage through strengthening our spiritual lives together. In The Character of Leadership, Iorg also says that we should invest in having a great marriage, which I wholeheartedly believe. By purchasing two copies of Pause, we are taking a specific step to invest in our marriage by studying God’s word together.

I do really well with arbitrary/artificial boundaries. I told Janice last night that I recently figured out a reason that I enjoy watching sports: they allow for creativity within a given framework of rules. I love that. It’s part of why I loved being a student and love teaching. Classes provide the skeleton on which ideas can be developed. I look at this year-long adventure of Scripture reading as a chance to think about the ideas and connections found throughout the Bible. I don’t have to plan the readings out; I can just wind it up and let it go.

Initially, I wondered if we would be wise to search around for other Bible-reading plans. I know they are out there. I know there are probably free ones that don’t require the purchase of two new books. However, I saw two directions: momentum and stagnation. If we went with Pause, we would be carrying forward the excitement of developing discipline in an interesting way. If we went to research reading plans, life would get in the way and we’d eventually have a conversation that was basically this:

“Remember when we thought about reading the Bible together everyday?”

“Yeah. We should do that.”

We talked about the plan last night. We ordered the books this morning.

I keep using the word “adventure”. “Discipline project” doesn’t sound all that exciting. “Adventure” does, and this is genuinely how I feel about it, not a way to rhetorically create motivation. Last week, Chad took a moment to focus on God’s word as compared to weapons that split bones. I posted a few images that popped into my head. Later, I drew pictures of those three swords in my prayer journal and asked God to help me connect those images with the experience of reading the Bible.

Let me pause and point out a couple of things. First, I’m not some brute of a man looking for a way to inject testosterone into my spiritual life. I do drink black coffee, but I’ve never shot a gun. I can’t grow a (decent) beard. I don’t wear flannel or watch UFC or brew my own beer, and I don’t need a war-based metaphor to convince myself that God is worth following. Second, the sword metaphor is God’s, not mine. I’m simply asking God to help me experience his word in the way that his language portrays it, not telling him how I would prefer to read the Bible.

His language feels adventurous, and that is setting the tone for this particular discipline project for me.

The first day’s reading, which you can view on Amazon, pairs the first chapters of Genesis and John. The adventure will begin with two perspectives of The Beginning, and I’m excited for where the journey will take us from there.