Literal Life Update #3

Well, it’s been a long time since i simply wrote an update on my life. I trust this one is more positive than the original.

Life has definitely been a rollercoaster already this year. In some ways, i feel as though i’ve been very successful, but in other ways, i wonder if my life will ever make sense.

A story first.

So in the past few days, i finished reading another novel. (I have gotten back into being a voracious novel reader this year; i’ve already read ten whole books this year at about 3500 total pages; this does not include Bible-related books.) The novel i most recently finished is called When You Disappeared by John Marrs, a contemporary British author who’s written five books since 2014, and i’ve now read four of them. The plot of the book centers around a single conversation one afternoon between an estranged husband and wife. The husband had abandoned the family twenty-five years earlier because of a misconception; he returned to his wife the day the novel takes place in an attempt to make her feel responsible for his abandonment, but in the end, he realizes that he was the only one at fault the whole time. In the epilogue, we read,

“Finally he accepted it hadn’t been God, Doreen, Kenneth, Billy, Dougie or Catherine who had caused his suffering, but himself.”
(John Marrs, When You Disappeared [p. 336], Thomas & Mercer, Kindle Edition.)

I share this because as i read this super random story, i was struck by the character’s solution to his problems. When things got tough, he’d run. It reminded me of myself. While i’ve never abandoned a spouse (God has still yet to bring her into my life), i run from churches much too quickly when things are not up to my standard, and i once ran 1600 miles home after a relationship unexpectedly ended but still managed to become more painful even after it had been broken off.

My most recent relationship ended a month ago, and i had planned to hi-tail it back to Missouri after it ended, but now a month later i’m still in Southern California. And i just finished reading a book that taught me not to run from my problems but to work through them. (God works in mysterious ways.)

So, i’m currently leaning towards staying in California for the time being, sticking it out at the church i’ve been at for the past year, continuing to substitute teach, continuing to write, and starting a Master’s program in the fall at a semi-local seminary. If i start school, i won’t have much time for writing for fun, so i have several pre-fall writing goals.

• Stronger than Sin — my “romance novel” — goal for rough draft = March 31
• treatise on Israel and the church = April 30
• commentary on Galatians — self-published = May 31

I have so many more writing projects i want to do, but these are several projects that i have been working on for a long time (at least several months) and would love to finish before i get caught up in school assignments and tons of reading and research.

Even with these projects, i plan to continue posting here at least once a week throughout the whole year.

Please pray for me as i strive to be productive and make steps toward my goals of both being a writer and becoming a Bible professor. Also, please pray that my propensity to run from my problems would be crucified with Christ. I need courage and boldness.

Thanks for the prayers.

In this with you.

Soli Deo Gloria
Sola Fide
Solus Christus

Thanks for reading.