We are now two weeks past the launch event for Seasons of Sorrow and one week past the official release date. Overall I think things went well. The Getty Music Sing! Conference, where we held the launch event and where I led a breakout session, was my first conference in more than two years and it was a blessing to meet so many of you there. I can’t say I really missed conferences and travel during the pandemic era, but it was still good to be back to it. I (perhaps inevitably) picked up a pretty good case of Covid there and though that knocked me off my feet for about a week, I then made a reasonably quick recovery. I trust I’ll stop coughing and recover my sense of taste before long!

I am very thankful for all the support and well-wishes related to the book and very grateful to each of you who purchased a copy. The song from CityAlight has also seemed to resonate and I look forward to hearing how you’ve introduced it to your own churches.
CityAlight shared some neat pictures from that launch event in case those are of interest:

I want to remind those of you who may be giving the book to families that have experienced a loss, that I’ve prepared a letter you can consider printing and including with it. It will help explain the background to the book and perhaps guide grieving parents to a couple of the chapters that may prove most helpful in the earliest days of their sorrow.
With the launch of Seasons of Sorrow behind me, I am planning to escape to a quiet location for a few days in October so I can begin to plan out my next writing project. I have what I think is a solid idea and one my publisher is behind, but I still need to tease it out and make sure it can be feasible—and be interesting enough to hold my attention through a year of writing and editing.
On the family front, Aileen recently began a part-time job—essentially a personal assistant in the real estate industry—and is enjoying it a lot. She sometimes works here and sometimes from the office, but considering her boss is a neighbor and has her office in her home, the commute is measured in mere meters. To this point it has been a good fit and a blessing to her.
Michaela did her first solo cross-border travel last weekend, flying down to the US to visit a friend and surprise her for her sweet sixteen. Sixteen is the generally-accepted age where people are allowed to fly without adult supervision and permission (though we still filled out the requisite paperwork just in case). She has traveled with us plenty in the past so had no trouble adapting to doing it on her own. She’s loving her online schooling and benefitting a lot from her classes. These are still early days, but so far she has no regrets in withdrawing from her former school.
While Michaela was going, Abby and Nate were arriving. Nate is a lifelong fan of the Blue Jays (rather convenient, considering the family he married into) but had never been to a game before. We decided a playoff run was the perfect time to remedy that, so he and Abby swung up for the weekend to go with us. I don’t get downtown as often as I could or should, but it sure was nice to take in a game at the Rogers Centre. It wasn’t a tremendously good game of baseball, but the Jays did come away with a solid win over the Orioles.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago I shared some thoughts on the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. I’ll add a few more thoughts today.
There was lots of chatter before the series debuted about whether or not it would be Wokety Woke Woke. We are now four episodes in and I’d say this is still not clear. What is clear is that the show’s creators are just making up their own story. And while the story is loosely based on Tolkien’s world, its characters tend to think, act, and speak like they live in ours. I suppose I could try to enjoy it on its own terms instead of trying to enjoy it as something related to The Lord of the Rings, but, as it happens, The Lord of the Rings is the only fantasy I’ve ever enjoyed. This show only means anything to me because of its connection to Tolkien—a connection that is increasingly tenuous.
To this point I’m finding the series drab. After four hours of television, and midway through the first season, very little has happened and no characters have been introduced that I have come to care about. It’s boring, boring, boring. Perhaps the worst thing of all, though, is that the central character is obnoxious, self-centered, entitled, and unlikeable. Why would you base a whole show around someone who is so brash and grating? And why would you make her so very different from who she was in the books and films? This is absolutely baffling to me! And don’t even get me started on the cringey action scenes where she single-handedly kills a snow troll or somehow shoves five soldiers into a prison cell even though she is unarmed. Galadriel is a beloved character from a beloved story and this adaptation completely eviscerates all that people love about her. I suppose you could say the writers are envisioning some kind of character arc in which she will eventually become the Galadriel we know and love. But I don’t think I’m alone in hoping that she comes across another snow troll soon—I know which of them I’ll be cheering for. (And yet that’s part of the difficulty with the show, isn’t it? We know she is in no great danger because she’s alive and well in the events that take place centuries later. We know she will survive every battle.)
Whatever the case, it’s hard to believe that this is the most expensive show in the history of television, not to mention one of the most hyped. At nearly $60 million per episode, and with some of the greatest intellectual property they could ever hope to work with, the creators have made a show that is, through the early episodes, mediocre at best. It truly could turn into one of the great entertainment disasters of all time. Of course it’s still possible that they can turn it around. But at this point I’m not holding out much hope. And, lest we lose sight of a key fact, let me repeat it: $60 million per episode and this is the best they can do! It’s almost unbelievable.

Good day! May the Lord bless you and keep you today.

There are lots of good books in today’s list of Kindle deals.
Good Habits from Painful Beginnings
This article considers the way that good habits often have their genesis in painful beginnings. “How often does God allow something negative or painful in our lives so that we begin something new—a new habit that is for our own good?”
Pastors Aren’t the Brand
“We’re told these days how important it is to develop a personal brand.” Yet as Darryl tells us here, neither the pastor nor the church should be a brand.
Is your church website accomplishing the right things?
It’s the first impression people have of your community. It can be a powerful tool for communication with your congregation. Is it doing what it needs to do? The team behind WhiteHorseInn.org, ElisabethElliot.org, and even Challies.com, also makes sites for local churches! In March only, mention ‘CHALLIES‘ to receive 30% off your first year of service with MereChurch. (Sponsored Link)
This American High
“Thirty-five years ago, I loved foolish bits of sticky paper. Thirty-five years from now, what will be my lament? Today I cling to my home, my security, my liberty – the very things I view as blessings from God – but will I have used them to serve and save eternal souls? Or will these ‘blessings’ have distracted me from what is most important?”
Are You Standing in God’s Way?
Can we stand in God’s way? “You may dismiss this question on its face. After all, how could anyone resist omnipotence? Who could thwart his plans and purposes? In an absolute sense, I agree. We can no more resist God than an ant can resist a boulder rolling to land upon its sandy domicile.”
The Goal Is to Make the Metaverse our “Primary” Reality
As we begin to hear more and more about the metaverse, it’s good to remind ourselves of the total and sweeping goals of those who are designing and advocating it.
50 for the 50th
RYM is collecting top-ten lists of Christian books and sharing them here.
Flashback: The Celebrity Pastor We’ve Never Known
The holiest moments of pastoring are the ones that are seen by the fewest people. And in the end, I’m convinced these are the ones that mean the most. Most people will forget most of your sermons, but they’ll remember that when they called, you came.

The keeping up of appearances is an exhausting way to live. —Dane Ortlund

There have been some amazing Kindle deals over the past couple of days, so if you weren’t around over the weekend, be sure to scroll down to September 1 and 2. As for today, we’ve got the entire “Blessings of the Faith” series along with several other interesting titles. On the general market side, Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath is a fun and interesting read—just one of many there.
(Yesterday on the blog: I Know It Broke Her Heart)

Jacob explains why it’s a bad thing when old men stop planting trees. Or as his dad says, “When old men stop planting trees that they’ll never sit under, we’ve got a real problem.”

Rebekah Matt: “Statistically, my life ought to be a serious mess right about now.” Yet by the grace of God it isn’t.

“If you are rolling your eyes about whether or not we even need this article, you may be losing touch with the current cultural climate and the effects of the internet-age.” I quite agree.

Matthew considers the differences between URL and IRL ministry. “Christians should not attempt to pastor themselves. But that is the temptation that faces them when they use abstract ministry resources (space) to the neglect of the faithful local churches and faithful church leaders that see them and know them (place).”

“In February of this year, I was diagnosed with a rare type of brain cancer. I am, quite literally, one in a million. A seizure brought me to my knees and was the catalyst for the discovery. A brain biopsy and a craniotomy followed in the days and months after. I went from being independent and in the prime of my life, just on the cusp of turning forty, to being dependent, unable to drive, living with family, and staring down the face of a life-altering diagnosis that is presently incurable. “

It was such a joy to read this article. “We met her when she was almost three months old. We adopted her only a matter of weeks ago. On her adoption day, she wore a little pink smocked dress with princesses on it, and as she sat in her stroller surrounded by the three children who had welcomed her into their world and loved her sweetly and sacrifically, we all heard her practicing her new name under her breath, ‘Ivy Joy Edgington.’”

As a Christian reader, my task, my challenge, and my joy, is to read with discernment, to subtract what is opposed to a Christian worldview, and to bind together the pieces through distinctly Christian thinking.

No man shall ever take from me the joy that Christ rose from the dead.
—Charles Spurgeon