Meshach Kanyion, At Your Service

10 Thoughts from the Week

If you could peek into my draft folder you would find several unfinished posts. Some are bible studies, others are theological reflections, I even have a few short stories in the pile!

Great at starting, not so good at finishing…

But I want to keep posting consistently, so I’m stealing an idea from other writers I follow. I’m going to start a weekly email that will include 10 thoughts from my week, and links to any articles that I’ve completed.

This will keep me from flooding your inbox when I do finish articles, and it will help with my consistency when I haven’t.

Here we go!

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1. The Fellowship of the Rings is a really great book! I’m almost finished rereading it for the 3rd or 4th time, and there are a few lines that stood out this time around.

   Courage is found in unlikely places. Be of good hope! — Gildor

   He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
   — Gandalf

2. Introducing yourself with, “At your service,” catches people off guard. I also got this from The Fellowship of the Rings, when Gloin introduce himself to Frodo. It occurred to me that we don’t say stuff like that anymore, we just say a variation of, “hey!” So lame. Try it out, and pay attention to their face when you say it.

3. Getting old isn’t so bad. Last week 2 things happened that reminded me of my age. 1) My oldest daughter Charlee turned 16 (AND GOT A JOB ON THE SAME DAY!). I’m so proud of her. 2) Ashanti and I attended the Ohio St. game with some friends. Being back on campus always jogs my memory. This time seeing my nephew — a freshman — there made me realize how far removed from the college days I am. I don’t know… I’m definitely feeling older, but I also feel older in wisdom, gratitude, and some of the other stuff that only comes with time and experience.

   

4. Podcasting: A few months ago I set out to do a weekday devotional on the Acts of the Apostles, and I FINISHED! I’m excited about this because it was a pretty time consuming project, and it just felt good to commit and get it done. I’m going to continue the project with weekday reflections (no video) on Spotify. Subscribe if interested. The first will be reflecting on Luke 15.

   

5. Purposelessness is worse than poverty. Think about it.

6. Prioritize the things that increase within you a love for God. This is the essence of discipleship. Ask yourself, what would be good for God in this moment, then do that. Thankful to Henri Nouwen for this reminder.

7. Living from our divine identity is the most important thing we can do. I had a chat with a friend about how tough the job market is. We were talking about the many jobs he’d applied for, and the unholy ritual of waking every morning to discover a slew of emails, delivered under the cover of darkness, that read, “Thanks for applying, but at this time…” If we aren’t resting in who we are in God, these disappointments, and many others, will pull us down into despair and we may begin to internalize them and think we are rejects. No! We are beloved by the Father. Receive everything else in that context.

8. Switzerland is beautiful! We haven’t been… yet, but this week Ashanti has been playing a YouTube video (it’s not the one below, but similar) that had images of Switzerland accompanied by some intense jazz music. I found myself staring. It’s on the list of places to go now.

9. The Chosen is such a great show. We’re doing a watch party at church every Wednesday. This past week we watched the “Wedding at Cana” episode and I heard people sniffling. I’m thinking of making video reviews of each episode… in my free time.

10. You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God. — Dallas Willard

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