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Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Arthur Wesley Dow, The Hill Field, 1908–1910

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Samuel John Peploe (1871–1935), The Sands, Barra

Here in San Diego County we’re deprived of the kind of fall season many other parts of the country enjoy, particularly the dramatic change in the color of leaves. However, I recently found fall hiding up at Palomar Mountain State Park.

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875),

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil. Today I want to talk about how the Psalms can help us process our emotions.

Georges Seurat, , 1883–1884

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil. This week I ask for your help thinking about emotion. I also have some articles for you about work and rest and a great quote by John Wesley about common grace.

August Fink (1872–1916),

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Constantin Westchiloff (1877–1945),

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Peder Mørk Mønsted, , 1912

Julian Onderdonk, Bluebonnets at Sunrise, 1917

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Samuel Halpert, , ca. 1924

Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Edward Wilkins Waite (1854–1924),

This week I introduce you to a playlist for those who are grieving, hurting, or suffering that makes space for both lament and hope in our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

Albert Edelfelt (1854–1905),

Just a quick check in. It’s been a few weeks. I’m hoping to resume publishing weekly in the near future.

Peter Ilsted (1861–1933),

Have you noticed that, by and large, our churches don’t attract the kind of people Jesus did during his earthly ministry (the poor, marginalized, irreligious, and openly immoral)? Why is that? See Tim Keller’s take below.

Samuel Palmer, , 1851

Edward Mitchell Bannister, Streamside, 1870

My wife and I are on a much-needed but way too brief getaway (I wrote and scheduled this before we left).

Paul Kutscha (1872–1935),

Marsden Hartley, New Mexico, c. 1918–1920

How does following a crucified Lord shape our prayers?

Elmer Wachtel, , ca. 1920

A timely warning from a trusted voice.

William Wendt, , 1920

A barber from a small Kentucky town reflects on growing old.

George Inness, , 1892

If you’re in Christ, you can hop off that treadmill.

George Elbert Burr, , 1899

Psalm 93 asserts that the fundamental truth about the world is this: the Lord reigns!

Camille Pissarro, , 1897

Often around this time of year I get the urge to go wander in the mountains.

Edward G. Eisenlohr,

Five suggestions for making the Psalms part of your prayer life.

Camille Pissarro, , 1891

I’m enjoying more evening light as I write this week’s newsletter.

Winslow Homer, , 1894

Do you ever find yourself at a loss for words in prayer? There’s so much going on inside you—thoughts, feelings, fears, hopes—but you’re not quite sure how to express it. The Psalms can help.

George Inness, , 1894

Please do not neglect the Psalms. Read them. Meditate on them. Pray them. No other practice has helped steady me as much over the past year as reading and praying a psalm each day.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, , c. 1865

I love Wendell Berry, but sometimes he frustrates me. Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Louis Eilshemius, , 1890

Have I become a birder? Is there any going back? Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

John Atkinson Grimshaw, , ca. 1884

I have some art for you to enjoy today. Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Gustave Loiseau, , 1912

The death of a baseball legend, a praying feminist, why story is important, and a young poet mesmerizes the nation. Welcome to this week’s edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil.

Bertha von Tarnoczy (1846–1936),

Jean Béraud (1849–1935), L’accident: Porte Saint-Denis

Alfred Zoff, ‌The Meadow Near Krems, 1903

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, A Café In Vaugirard, c. 1850

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Pompton Plains, New Jersey, 1867

Joseph Rubens Powell, Winter, 1835/1871

John Constable, Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth Of The Thames–Morning After A Stormy Night, 1829

L.A. Ring, A Road Near Vinderød, Zealand, 1898

H.A. Brendekilde, ‌A Sower of the Field on a Sunny Spring Day at Brendekilde Church, 1914

Albert Bierstadt, Buffalo Trail: The Impending Storm, 1869

Jozef Israëls, Peasant family at the table, 1882

H.A. Brendekilde, Children on a Country Road, 1892

Georges Seurat, The Gardener, 1882–83

H.A. Brendekilde, Wooded Path in Autumn, 1902

George Inness, New Jersey Landscape, 1891

H.A. Brendekilde, Fishing Boy, 1880

Tyndale New Testament, 1526, Digital Commons, Cedarville University

Alma Thomas, , 1973, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Camille Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, 1897

Robert Seldon Duncanson, ‌Still Life with Fruit and Nuts, 1848

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Abraham’s Oak, 1905

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I’ve shared this with some of you in the past, but Steadfast by Sandra McCracken is one of my favorite albums by any artist. Watch a live performance…from a living room.

The Stone Bridge by Rembrandt, 1637

In the previous issue I wrote about the need to approach the pandemic as if it’s a marathon not a sprint. If you haven’t read it yet, go ahead and do so and then pick back up here.

So how do we pace ourselves? Here are some suggestions.

It’s easy to begin dwelling on the way things used to be. Many of the things we depended on for stability and a sense of normalcy have disappeared. It’s not wrong to what we’ve lost. But I find that, if I’m not careful, thinking about life before COVID-19 can tempt me to become angry, frustrated, or discontent.

‌I learned from The Economist recently that the word quarantine comes from the 14th century Venetian word quarentena, denoting a period of forty days, which, in an effort to limit the spread of bubonic plague, was the time newly arrived ships were required to remain in isolation before passengers were permitted to disembark.

Greetings, friends. Welcome to the inaugural edition of In the House of Tom Bombadil. Before I tell you more about what to expect from this newsletter, I suppose I should explain this Tom Bombadil business.

Who is Tom Bombadil?

He’s an enigmatic character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s series. He appears about midway through Book One of . Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin spend two nights at his home. The chapter in which the story is told is titled “In the House of Tom Bombadil.” Bombadil didn’t make it into the Peter Jackson films, most likely because it isn’t clear whether his story and the hobbits’ encounter with him advance the plot at all. Moviegoers want action!