Friends,

While I am keeping this newsletter as a way of occasionally sharing fascinating things with you all, I am thrilled to introduce you to Rhythms of Habit, a newsletter about approaching the Church Calendar as an apprenticeship in Holiness.

In addition to (hopefully) being a helpful and informative newsletter, this project is also a means of finalizing the draft of my next book, called Rhythms of Habit: The Church Calendar as an Apprenticeship in Holiness.

If you are already sold, head on over to Substack to join as a free or paid subscriber. If you need to hear more, read on!

Friends,

Today I completed a 365 day run streak. I have run at least one mile per day for the past year.

To mark the occasion, below are some initial reflections, interesting stats from the past year, plus a thought about what comes next.

Friends,

As we head into a new year, two excerpts from things I’ve been working on are below: one from a recent sermon and one from an article published today commemorating the Feast of the Holy Name.

In other news, New Years Bingo returns this year to the Jordan family. Below are some almost finalized versions of our boards for 2022.

Friends,

This newsletter is an ongoing attempt at slower, but still social media. For the past year or so, the emphasis has certainly been on the slow part.

This short edition is sparked by a new Jordan family musical discovery and a couple of recent personal updates.

But first: a good friend had me on her podcast this week.

Friends,

Origin stories tell us who we are as individuals, and who we are as a society. In other words, if you want to explain some of what you see in society today, you have to look at what we tell ourselves about where we came from.

By and large the predominant story we tell ourselves about where we came from today is the story of chance existence and . We exist because enough time passed in our universe for the chance of the emergence of life on this planet to come to fruition. And we exist the way we exist today because .

Friends,

Yesterday I baptized our daughter. It happened on the Feast of Pentecost, after a night of protests, riots, and looting across the country.

Those who were able to join us outside early on Sunday morning celebrated the breath of the Holy Spirit breathed upon the first Christians millennia ago, and then witnessed the breath of the Holy Spirit breathed into the soul of my daughter.

And we did so on the same week that we also witnessed an image-bearer of God pleading for, and eventually losing,

Friends,

See below for an update on the Confessions of St. Augustine reading group and a chance to read yet another book together without scheduling yet another virtual meeting…

Friends,

You are invited to join me for a weekly discussion of The Confessions of St. Augustine.

! The first discussion is to be held the week of March 30th.

Friends,

The nation of Columbia has been home to one of the longest-standing guerrilla warfare conflicts in the world. For over 50 years, the FARC guerrillas have been wreaking havoc throughout the nation.

In 2006, Jose Miguel Sokoloff was hired by the government of Columbia to develop an advertising campaign to convince FARC guerrillas to leave their life as soldiers.

The earliest campaigns were not entirely useless, but they were not as effective as Jose, or Columbia, had hoped.

Friends,

Today’s short break from the news is a beautiful flash mob performance of Ode to Joy.

A few observations and favorite moments before you watch:

Friends,

It is worth pausing to consider that you have received dozens of emails about the virus from your church, schools, gym, movie theater, and local badminton club. You may be keeping up with local and international news more than you normally do, and many of your conversations online and in-person have been about the virus, too.

It was to a room full of people in a similar situation that C.S. Lewis once spoke these words:

Friends,

There is a new addition to the Jordan family, one that has caused me to encounter a new modern-day saint. Plus, we take a look at the monks of Silicon Valley and apparently missed our chance for a private audience with Pope Francis.

But first, check out this artist that turned one-star Yelp reviews of National Parks into hilarious posters.

Friends,

Seventy-seven years ago today C.S. Lewis delivered the first of three lectures that would eventually become The Abolition of Man.

Tonight, CDA Dallas is hosting a lecture and group discussion on the first of those lectures: . If you are in the Dallas area and interested in attending, .

Friends,

This time around we explore the link between metaphysics and architecture, with a little bit of help from a friend named Hans. (If that doesn’t sound like a jolly good time, I don’t know what does!)

Should church architecture reflect the nature of God, or should it be purely functional? Should the design of a sanctuary be influenced by cost and efficiency, or something more transcendent?

We have several good friends who are asking these very questions after the October tornado destroyed , leaving them with the blessing/curse of starting from scratch in designing their sanctuary.

Friends,

We embark on a quest to save the humanities, meet the slow watch, and I share about a workshop on classical education and Christian formation I am leading next month.

But first, Austin Kleon has some intriguing thoughts about keeping time…

Friends,

This time around I share a slightly longer thought on Vocation, as well as some delightful words from Martin Luther about marriage.

But first, have you met Malcolm Guite?

Friends,

Happy New Year / Feast of the Holy Name!

A little over one year ago, in tandem with the deletion of my social media accounts, I brought back this newsletter as a form of “slower but still social” media.

Friends,

It has been a minute, but this time around I share a fascinating sentence I recently read about the Book of Common Prayer, an article about how sunscreen will eventually kill us all, and we meet Helvetica Now: the new version of Helvetica Neue which was the new version of Helvetica which was the new version of Neue Haas Grotesk, the iconic font designed by Max Miedinger and Edouard Hoffman in 1957.

But first…

The Exsultet

Friends,

This time around we hear a professor of literature explain the beauty of soccer, discover Marie Kondo’s one flaw, and find out why my wardrobe was drastically simplified this weekend.

But first, some solid advice from an Archbishop on keeping relationships (and your sanity).

Friends,

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a Happy Feast of the Holy Name to you all!

Friends,

This time around we explore a new social media experience that is designed not to drain our souls, and I share links to the now complete Nicene Creed blog series I edited for Coram Deo Academy this Fall.

If you happen to be in Dallas for Christmas and are looking for a place to worship, you are invited to join me and/or the family at a number of Christmas Eve services at Incarnation.