Category: Uncategorized

They gave their tomorrows for our today.

The noted German pastor and theologian Helmut Thielicke once told his students, “Sell all [the books] that you have … and buy Spurgeon.” Great advice!

Certain things are essential to my writing life. My Apple products, are chief among them.

 

You, there! Want to be a writer? Sell all you have … and buy a Mac.

(The joke of course being you pretty much have to sell all you own to buy Mac. Yikes. It’s true!)

I’ve written on my love for my MacBook Air before. From my discovery of this fine machine (h.t. Michael Hyatt) to my eventual replacement of it–another of the same model, but like the Six Million Dollar Man, better, stronger and faster … the love continues!

Along the way, I picked up an iPad Air. I’ve gotten to where it’s my travel companion. Reading, writing, corresponding. Boom! That quick, easy and portable. Got a cool keyboard for it. It’s my mini-Mac.

For you professional writers, all my accounting, billing, communication and client files are accessible to me across all my devices.

I’ve been an iPhone user since the very first one came out. Haters gonna hate. I hear you Samsung folks out there. Glad you’re happy. But me? I’m giddy-happy! All my Apple devices are synced up, and screaming along. My content. Everywhere. All the time.

By the way, upgraded to an iPhone 8-plus yesterday. Loving this phone even more than the 6S it replaced. I’ll be good for a while. You know, until … better, stronger, faster.

Okay, so I suppose I’ll put down my Apple flavored kool-aid and suggest, yes, your choice of devices can be yours. Choose your manufacturer. Just make sure yours works best for you. 

And give thanks–like me–because when it works for you, you’re a happy writer! I’m living proof.

Like your bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream. Your schedule — in at about the same time every day, out when your thousand words are on paper or disk — exists in order to habituate yourself, to make yourself ready to dream just as you make yourself ready to sleep by going to bed at roughly the same time each night and following the same ritual as you go. –Stephen King

Five Minute Memoir quip #214

I’m quite certain I could never work for a living. I look back upon 21 years of pastoral ministry and realize I was simply living out and sharing my faith-journey with others. Sermons, visitation, teaching, care—those were just things I loved to do. It wasn’t a job. I got paid to be me. Same thing with these last five years of writing. Putting words on a page is my greatest passion in life. The fact that people pay me to do what I love to do, amazes me every day I rise … and get to do it again. Those folks who hold down a 9-to-5, commute through traffic jams to an office in the city, hustle to meet a schedule, collect a wage or earn a salary, God bless you. I have all the respect in the world for you. I couldn’t do it. It’s the literary life for me.

Another school shooting. Our hearts hurt.

Let the latest round of political posturing begin. Left and Right—pointing fingers. Everybody is shouting solutions, which are nothing of the sort.

Let me be clear: I’m not leaning left or right here. With a situation as severe as this, I believe all of the ideas being shared are worthy of consideration. But none of them—let me say that again, louder: NONE OF THEM—will ensure school shootings never happen again.

Not tougher gun laws. Not better mental health screening. Not arming teachers. Not renewed emphasis on “see something, say something.” Not outlawing violent movies or video games. Not better parenting. Not bringing the Bible or prayer back into schools.

Truth is—neither side really wants to do what it would take to stop school shootings. Both sides want a political victory. No give.  

I will tell you what would work. It’s so simple. Do you have the stomach for this?

If you really want school shootings to end—never to happen again—treat it like 9/11.

After 9/11, the entire air-travel industry changed. Immediately. Do you remember? All airplanes were GROUNDED until the cockpit door was reinforced. I’m not sure how much the price tag was to outfit how many ever tens of thousands of airplanes … DIDN’T MATTER. It got paid.

Security at airports changed forever. I’m not sure what the price tag was for all the extra TSA screeners, armed security and screening equipment upgrades at every commercial airport … DIDN’T MATTER. It got paid.

We all experience the added inconvenience, long lines, the invasion of privacy, the rollback of traveler’s rights. DOESN’T MATTER. We deal with it. Or else we DON’T FLY.

Here’s the solution: Schools are soft targets. Make them hard targets. PROBLEM SOLVED.

Build a fence around our schools. Put armed guards at the entrance. Search everyone entering school grounds—even the principal! EVERYONE. No guns on school grounds (other than the officers manning the gate) means no shootings on school grounds.

Of course—this will be costly. Education already suffers from a lack of funding. SHOULDN’T MATTER. How serious are we about stopping this?

Of course—this will be unsightly. No one wants their cute little local elementary school to resemble a penitentiary. SHOULDN’T MATTER. How serious are we about stopping this?

Of course—it will mean an inconvenience for everyone coming onto school grounds, to be searched, screened, wanded, take off your shoes, bring lunches in see-through lunch boxes … whatever. SHOULDN’T MATTER. How serious are we about stopping this?

If I were president—especially one with a talent for pulling off construction projects “ahead of schedule and under budget” and with a particular fondness for walls …

And if I were a master at the art of the deal, with a rolodex full of wealthy and creative corporate friends …

And if I were able to move masses to contribute tubs of money with a tweet…

And if I were a Hollywood star/activist with more money and a bigger platform than most, who has lots of Hollywood star/activist friends with more money and a bigger platform than most …

Imagine how quickly—and how affordably—we could do this!

Shoot, I’m a taxpayer. There’s a few hundred million of us, right? Let’s all kick in a buck. What about this? Ask every household in America for a donation of one dollar ($1) or more. Obviously, if you can give more than a buck, awesome! Brag about it. Tell your friends, “I sent in twenty!” Whatever. With the surplus, we can buy every kid in America a clear lunchbox! Better, a ‘Made Our Schools Safe Again’ hat!

I just paid for the wall around every school in America, and STOPPED SCHOOL SHOOTINGS. See how easy it was?

But no. We’ll keep debating all these other solutions that aren’t really solutions–and we’ll be back here again. Grieving.

Sad.