Announcing a six month sabbatical from blogging

Well, there's been a raging debate going on in my head over whether I should continue this blog at all in 2012. You might have noticed the lack of posting lately. I've been trying to keep a minimal presence just in case I get all energized about blogging again.

But I don't think that's going to happen right away.

So the choice is, keep hanging around, sustaining said minimal presence, just in case . . . which seems rather pointless . . . or just calling it quits.

Here's what I think. It's no use keeping the lights on in the house if no one lives there anymore.  I think I will be blogging again someday, but not for the next few months at least.

So here's what I'll be doing. First, I'm taking a six month sabbatical from blogging. I'm going to spend some of that time thinking about what kind of blogging I want to do if ever I do ever resume this sort of thing.

And if I do, I think it will be something very different. But for now, the mojo is gone. I'm closing the candy store. When and if I come back, it will be at a different site altogether, with a whole different feel. If it happens, I'll be letting people know in the usual social media places, so by all means friend me, put me in your circle, or whatever.

Till then, farewell.  I'm on sabbatical.

Thursday Three

Relevant Magazine's 10 best books of 2011.

The Tyranny of Advice.

If Jesus Had a Blog. Funny. Also, brilliant.

Thursday Three

David Cooke's starter kit for 2012.

I just bought Jared Wilson's Gospel Wakefulness. That should be my next read of 2012.  [Funny that Barnes and Noble does not offer the ebook for their nook, but Christian Book does. What's with that, B&N?]

Speaking of Jared Wilson, his new small group study looks helpful: Seven Daily Sins.

Thursday Three

Listen to N. T. Wright, if only to hear how he pronounces the word "corollary." But no, really, interesting guy and he's making a very important point about the Gospel.

And I think (but this is just a guess) that Wright is making the same point that McKnight makes in his King Jesus Gospel, which I purchased last week and have just begun reading.

Oh, and did I tell you that N. T. Wright's book, Simply Jesus, was undoubtedly one of the best books I've ever read. Seriously. I thought the last chapter was a tad weak (where he answers the question, "what does the Kingdom of God look like in our lworld today?"), but I think Wright is saying very significant things in this book. Yeah, you should probably read it.

Thursday Three

The Life of Faith according to Internet Monk

Spiritual Progress according to Nate.

Sanctificantion according to Tullian Tchividjian

[Note: Nate and Tullian are writing about the same matters, and seem to be in total agreement.]

"The concentrated calamity of the cosmos..."

N. T. Wright's Simply Jesus. This is a fascinating book. Wright carefully depicts the particular conditions, political and religious, which form the social context of Jesus' ministry. You come away with a renewed sense of the sheer boldness of what Christ was telling people. How utter radical (and apparently crazy) it is to stand before a crowd and say the things he said. Here's a brief snip:

This, Jesus believed, is what it would look like when Israel's guide came back to Zion. It would not be the three men visiting Abraham, not the burning bush, not the pillar of cloud and fire, not Isaiah's smoky, seraphim-surrounded vision, not Ezekiel's whirling wheels, but a young man on a donkey, in tears, announcing God's judgement on the city and temple that stood on the cosmic fault lines, establishing his own still-uncomprehending followers as its surprising replacement, and then going off to take upon himself the full weight of evil, the concentrated calamity of the cosmos, so that its force would be annulled and the new world would be born.