01-08-26

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 8, 2026
Today is an anniversary of sorts. On January 8, 2008, I started writing what was to be 30 days of focused posts and emails when I was serving as a church in Florida. Eighteen years later, I continue to write. Of the over 6,000 Etchings that I have written, I feel as there are three or four dozen that are pretty good. But I am also thankful that a handful of folks read, and on occasion, find something helpful. Yet at the end of the day, I write my Ecclesiological Etchings because it is an important discipline for me. I brush my teeth every day, and I definitely eat three (or more) meals every single day. Those are generally important, but this daily writing pushes me to ponder and actually put something down day after day after day. I often find the process spiritually and emotionally stimulating, even when one idea has me going down a rabbit-hole of fascinating stuff that I will never use. I often have to rein myself in, recognizing that the Etching needs to be finished and posted because there are other things to do. I don’t know if I will be doing these three years from now, but if not, I hope I have some specific discipline to which I can point. Though I have a long way to go before I can describe myself as a disciplined person, I am reminded of the late Richard Foster, the guru of Spiritual Disciplines, who wrote, “The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.”

Because there is so much that seeks to distract, impose, and confuse, I seek to add just a bit of discipline to my spiritual practices so that I might acknowledge you and your immeasurable grace a bit more often, O God. Amen.