December Bits and Bobs

What I'm thinking about and what's shaping me in December

Articles and “Tweets” and Posts, Oh My!

I read. Sometimes it feels like a lot. Put something in front of my eyes and I’ll peruse it. I tend to read more narrowly than I likely should, sticking to lanes and topics and themes which I know I will stretch and encourage me. But I’m discovering something about myself—particularly here on Substack and on “X-nee-Twitter.” I find myself scanning through articles and posts from people I’ve never heard of, reading this and that from people of other denominations and even some secular authors. It’s been helpful. From differing points of view, differing theology, differing backgrounds, and differing contexts, I find myself reading articles and posts with which I don’t always agree. In the toxic echo chamber that social media can become, reading widely, even in small doses, strengthens my grip on what I believe. I hold more tightly to my convictions because, while there are always other ideas to process and think about, working through what others believe from what they say and write forces me to better grasp why I disagree or believe differently. By considering your own theology and how you came to measure yourself and the world through it, you can learn to accept that others love Jesus, too. Having differing opinions or traditions doesn’t necessarily make someone you disagree with a heretic. Read generously, live generously. Extend grace and mercy in the days to come by trying to find the middle ground, choosing to see the best in other people rather than cementing a worse-case-opinion of others.

---

---

One Year Ago

It was December 2023 when I deleted Tracing the Thread as a blog and re-launched it on Substack. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my writing after the hot mess of getting The Blueprint of Grace published. At the encouragement of some friends, the move came at a time when I wasn’t sure where writing fit into my day-to-day life and ministry.

I wrote when I could for a while, then I stopped because I didn’t think I had anything to say, then I didn’t start back up because I didn’t think anyone cared to read what I wrote, and then, well…it all felt like shameless self-promotion and platform building so that I could gain a bigger audience so that more copies of Blueprint would sell. It all felt rather slimy. I’m still dealing with the insecurities of it all, but in my head, a quote often attributed to Hemingway rings in my ears. When asked whether writing was hard, Hemmingway is purported to have replied, “Why no, you just sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.” I’m not over having written a book. The process wounded me deeply; the results, perhaps more so.

Writing a book is a terrible thing. It can be incredibly disheartening. Whenever someone asks me about how the book has sold, I can only say I’ve sold dozens of copies, maybe one hundred. I don’t know. I won’t know until the royalties check comes from Wipf & Stock sometime in February. I could probably find out, but I really don’t want to know. Really.

It’s funny. I took enormous satisfaction when the book dropped and love talking about it with people. I blush when someone tells me they’ve bought the book and are digging in to it. I had a friend raise his freshly purchased copy in the middle of a Zoom call last month and I was actually embarrassed about it. For all of the vainglory writing provides, that anyone would spend money to read what I write floors me to this day.

Anyway, I found myself, a year ago, wondering where writing fit into what I was doing with and in my life. It had been a sideline pursuit, sometimes parallel with pastoring, sometimes at odds with it, ALWAYS on my mind even though I have never aspired to writing. It all goes back to Joe, my bestie, which means it goes back to God. I know I’ve written about it before and I’ll likely write about it again, but there is something life changing about it and so I’ll keep banging that drum loudly. In conversation, Joe mentioned something about being blessed with the ability to do something endows a measure of responsibility to use said blessing for God’s glory, a certain and specific stewardship of the grace of God, if you will.

I don’t know what clicked. I don’t know if something changed back in October or if I just decided to actually believe what I said I believed: If my writing encourages or helps even one person understand their story and their place in God’s story, it’s worth my time to write. So, dear reader, thank you for spending your time reading the ramblings. I do hope they are helpful and encouraging.

---

All Creatures Great and Small

December brings out the best in BBC shows on Masterpiece. I remember Downton Abbey airing around the holidays. Recently, we’ve been introducing Lucy and Daisy to this new portrayal of James Herriot’s beloved classic. The girls have read much of his work or rather, had it read to them by my wife. The show is so lovely with its sweeping shots of the pastoral Northern English countryside. The characterizations are spot on and the casting is brilliant. The whole venture brings a smile to my face. I’m excited to see what season five holds in store for the Herriots and the rest of the Skeldale House crew.

---

Leif Enger

So, This past year I read Peace Like a River for the first time and found it to be one of the most moving works of fiction I’ve read in the last decade. It’s right there with East of Eden and All the Light We Cannot See. It might be the most enjoyable of the three start to finish. On a whim, I borrowed a copy of So Brave, Young and Handsome sometime in late-ish November. I didn’t have much of a chance to read until the Christmas holiday got into full swing (if you can imagine). I read the first 17 pages and was hooked, much quicker than many works of fiction I’ve tried to read this past year. When I did finally have time to sit and read, I think I read about a quarter of the book one day and then the final three-quarters the next. I could hardly put it down.

Enger immerses you in the setting and draws you in with characters you can’t look away from even when you desperately wish you could. In his book Letters and Life, Bret Lott jokes that the defining characteristic of literary fiction is that it doesn’t sell well. Of course he then, more seriously and perhaps more accurately, describes literary fiction as being character driven rather than plot driven. So Brave, Young and Handsome is exactly that, character driven. Enger crafts characters who move and grow and change and develop then pairs them with foils less malleable and more severe. He is a master in his craft.

I just received his latest I Cheerfully Refuse for Christmas and can hardly wait to dig into it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

---

Lists

Everyone and their brother puts together lists of their favorite this and that of 2024. I’m not walking that path, but I will say this: if you’re looking for a place to find good writing, there is a ton of it here on Substack. Some of it is great, some isn’t, some of it is…very niche. Regardless, here are a few people to follow:

• Nicholas Lewis - Gospel Embassy - Nicholas is a friend of mine who serves as a hospital chaplain here in Rolla. He’s a wonderful guy who has stepped into an amazing calling. On top of that, he’s a dad-gum quality writer.

• Luke Stamps - A Considered Life - Dr. Stamps is a professor at Clamp Divinity School of Anderson University. He writes about what he knows, theology, and he knows it incredibly well. From his Substack’s “About” page, Dr. Stamp writes, “mainly about spiritual theology: the intersection of dogmatic theology, moral theology, and spiritual formation. It’s about how to live a considered, or self-examined, life for the glory of God and the good of others.”

• O. Alan Noble - You Are Not Your Own Substack - Dr. Noble is a professor of Literature at Oklahoma Baptist University and he writes deep pieces about the human condition filled with power and literary beauty. He is a practitioner of his field of expertise and moving to read.

• Whitney K. Pipkin - Tell It True - Whitney is a fellow GCD Writers’ Guild member whose first book We Shall All Be Changed was recognized by The Gospel Coalition as the best book by a first time author in 2024. She’s an excellent author and worth your time to read.

---

As always dear reader, if you’ve found Tracing the Thread helpful, please share it with others by using one of these two lovely ochre buttons.

---

Prayer Requests

If you’re the praying sort, would you please keep my church family in your prayers. We’ve been taking several hits recently with illness and loss. We have many grieving, but not without hope.

Personally, I want to thank you for your prayers for my family. God has shown up in ways we did not expect nor that we can quite comprehend recently. He is incredibly faithful to fulfill his promises to his people. Never forget that.

If I can be praying for you in any way, drop me a note here or e-mail me at bob@tracingthethread.org. It would be my pleasure and honor to do so.

---

May your paths be made straight by the Lord and may you find peace in his truth, that Jesus Christ was born of a woman to live and breathe and die as the payment for your sins, and that God in his great power raised him from the grave so that you too, can hope for a resurrection to be revealed in the last day.

Go in peace, my friends. You are loved.

~SDG~