1.  If you write a book about how your work is significant in the eyes of God, even when you hate it and it seems small and miserable, there is a good chance you will have to go through that for about six years, if you have not already done so. God will be faithful, though. And the gospel will taste sweeter at the journey’s end.

2. On Monday I will start working with people that care about poetry.

3. Someone should do some serious writing about “vocational shame.” I talked about it in Sunday School one week for about 10 minutes and I still hear from men who struggle with this. It is real and deadly. There is gospel hope but it’s a hard road to walk. In the main, it is hard because most men have trouble admitting it.

4. If anyone tells you that working in a bank is a lot like ministry, go directly to target.com/careers.

5.  There is wisdom in knowing that even in a business you have struggled to respect, there are good people working there. And there are some like my best friend, Sean, who are living out the kindness of the gospel with the people they oversee.

6.  Yesterday I was listening to all these songs which had been anchors for me along the way and when I got to “Every Breaking Wave” and I heard “Drowning is no sin” I had to stop what I was doing and excuse myself. Some of you will understand.

7. Almost my whole time at the bank, I kept a copy of Wendell Berry’s Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front pinned up just to the right of my right-most monitor (I had three monitors). As I clocked out yesterday, I unpinned it and left it lying on my keyboard in hopes it would be read. Not a lot of hope, though…

8. I’ve been thinking about Shawshank Redemption a lot over the past couple of weeks. It’s been maybe 20 years since I have seen that film but I saw a clip not long ago that reminded me of so many scenes from the movie. Working for the Bank is nothing like prison. Know that. But metaphors are only meaningful if what is not similar can converge at a point and then help us see something true. Plus, the fact that Andy was a banker is not lost on me.

9. One of the great struggles has been knowing that other people struggle far more than I do. Either because of tragedy or poverty or disease. I know this to be true. But I also had to recognize there is something intrinsic to the way we were created regarding the vocations we are engaged in. It is never just “work.” Our whole souls are involved. And when the only consolation is that you can pay your bills (no small thing) the soul shrivels. I am glad we were able to pay our bills. But that was never enough. Some may think this is a weakness. But I think it is a strength developed over time as I understood more and more what it meant to “work” as one created in the image of God.

10. You need to know my wife is as excited about my new job as I am. This is no exaggeration. She had to keep reminding herself it was me quitting and not her, because she had taken on all the joy. No wonder since she has had to shoulder a lot of the darkness and anxiety I’ve been through. She never quit holding my hand, though. Not even once.

1. It is good to be part of a “me too” church culture. There, you can not only be honest, but you can know you do not repent, believe, or fight alone.

2. Reading a book about Mozart will make you hate the movie, Amadeus, in retrospect.

3. I have one week left at the Bank and my parting shot is only this:

Where angels might dance/there are an infinite number of directions/for the rest of us to fall.

4. Social media is destroying confidence in parenting. You only see the perfectly matching outfits on the beach because of the professional photographer. You do not see the abject fear. Or everyday frustrations. You do not see the kids fighting and complaining between shots.

5. When a friend tragically loses their only child, you look at your children differently. You can’t help it.

6. I think I expected Crime and Punishment to be a window. Instead, it was a mirror.

7. My middle son doesn’t like watching videos with animals killing other animals. It truly bothers him. After the boys went to bed and while Bethany was picking Emma up from band camp, I started to watch No Country for Old Men. Now as I rule, I am not one to just start a movie. But I loved the book and there it was on Netflix. But after the first scene ,I couldn’t handle it. I turned it off. I’m too much like my son.

8. There is a lot of “positive thinking” about vocation. Some of it is palatable. Most is unconscionable. You see, what so many of the punchy quotes miss is this: If it is true someone can find their groove in vocation – that sweet spot where desire and skill and training and experience come together for their good and other’s good – then is it not also possible the very opposite can happen with varying degrees between? It is possible.

9. I don’t think the technology of a book has been surpassed yet.

10. Did I mention I only have one more week at the bank?

1.  One of the things studying the New Testament will do, is train you to not assume. For example, our culture – even Christians – assume we should honor God and fear what the president will do (or not do). But Peter turns that paradigm on its head and says fear God and honor the Emperor, who was not very honorable. To enter the NT is to enter another world altogether, where assumptions are daily challenged.

2.  I finished reading The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings while on vacation. And it reminded me of when I was young and being so moved by what I read (Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey) in my literature classes that I wanted to tell someone and not really knowing who. I often wonder if those who made all A’s in those classes care about those stories now. Do they still know those first few lines of the prologue of Canterbury Tales in Middle English and carry them around like hoarded treasure?

3. The grace and mercy given to me through the cross saves me from the wrath of God. Also, it saves me from my insecure need to be angry about everything there is to be angry about.

4. How Christians talk about those they disagree with is infinitely more important than what politicians talk about.

5. I have now seen two posts on social media conflating the liberty we have in Christ with our nation’s independence. They are nothing alike. And for those who follow Christ, one of those freedoms is so treasured, the other is but a wistful rumor.

6. The difference between a very crowded beach and one that is not, makes all the difference. The beauty is obscured by the amount of commotion. But first thing in the morning? When no one is out there? Magic.

7. I have this theory: If you talk about a relational problem between two people (or two groups of people) too much, you actually do more harm than good. I think it’s a fairly sound theory for a couple reasons. First, generally the talk involves and naturally tends toward offenses and hurts. And the law will eventually push one party away. And second, I believe there is grace in silence. This stands in opposition to modern thinking that does not believe you can talk about anything too much.

8. I miss sitting out on the balcony in the morning with Bethany, looking out over the Gulf, eating half a biscuit and sausage topped with pimento cheese and a fried egg.

9. There are many  moments in Dante’s Inferno where my breath is taken away. And then there are other times where I’m glad there are notes and commentary for my second reading.

10. There is always more grace and mercy enjoyed, than we can see.