Appeasing Blog Guilt

That piteous cry I hear from time to time, voicing sad tales of abandonment, can be naught but the lamentations of my languishing blog, accusing me of neglect and impoverishment; a truly effective and difficult-to-ignore language it speaks.

Perhaps a haiku written on its behalf would suffice as appropriate blogging penance?

Blog lying fallow
All conversation stagnates
Repent, post again

Some bits and pieces from the last couple of weeks:

One of the great side-benefits from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe being made into a movie is that some of C.S. Lewis' out-of-print books have been re-released. Wendy had found the entire Cosmic Trilogy at a used bookstore and given them to me as a birthday present about ten years ago, but various borrowing friends (coupled with our cross-country treks) depleted my library of their presence. Until now... WOOT WOOT.

Charlie Wear, editor of Next-Wave, is one of the people who first strongly encouraged me to start my own blog (two others are Len Hjalmarson and Leighton Tebay); Charlie has kindly published several of my articles in the past couple of years, and emailed me last week to request an article on my Post-Charismatic writing for this month's cover.

Thanks, Sir Charles, for your continued encouragement and the somewhat freakish sensation I get in my gut seeing my name on the cover of Next-Wave.

I've been receiving and answering a LOT more emails than is normal for me, and it's been a joy to hear from so many different people, and to have some great conversations with these new-found friends. Plus, I've been reading Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy, as well as following the train wreck that is found in the record of Israel's kings as detailed in 1st and 2nd Chronicles.

However, my time should be slightly more "freed up" in the next couple of weeks, as just yesterday, I informed my manager at St. Arbucks that my availability to work any and all shifts would have to be curtailed once we start YWAM officially; to say that she was quite displeased would be -- accurate, if somewhat cryptic. As a result, apparently I will forfeit my shift supervisor position, and she hinted that I might find myself at the bottom of the list of baristas for getting any shifts at all.

While I am not wanting to burn any bridges with St. Arbucks, at the same time, I didn't move all the way across the country to serve coffee. YWAM is why we came here, and while I consider my job at St. Arbuck's to be part of the Lord's provision for our family, YWAM is the main focus.

Speaking of YWAM, we're getting really excited about starting there in just a few weeks. We've been friends of YWAM in several cities for many years, and have felt since 1990 that someday YWAM would be a more permanent place for us.

Starting with a "divine appointment" in 2003 at Providence College & Seminary's annual missions conference with Frank Naea (past president of YWAM), the journey/dream of becoming officially a part of YWAM began to gain momentum, and is finally coming to fruition.

And more frequent posting will follow and serve as "fruit in keeping with repentence" (Matthew 3:8). I mean it. Really and truly. Verily, verily.