A couple months ago I posted that I had written every day for 953 days, which tied my previous best. This morning the streak has reached 1000 days. As I said in that previous post, I know that the point of writing every day is not to have a “streak.” The goal is to become a steady, disciplined writer, spending time every day writing creatively. There are many of us who want to think of ourselves as writers, but the definition of writer is not “someone who likes to think about being a writer;” it’s “someone who writes.” So I feel encouraged that this discipline of writing every day is becoming established as part of who I am.

I’ve got some interesting projects coming up. During December I’ll begin postings in a new category: 21 Centuries of Christmas Carols. People have been singing about Christmas for a long time: we’ll look at the stories behind carols that everyone knows, and carols that are not as familiar. It’s pretty fun. I think you’ll like it. The Not Quite Sermons for December include titles like “Jesus and the Office Christmas Party” and “The Santa Clause They Never Told You About.” I think you’ll find them quite intriguing.

Then, starting in January, we’ll have a daily devotional, structured to read through the entire Bible over the course of 2024. Many people use devotional booklets that give two or three verses every day; if you follow that pattern, by the end of the year you will have read about 3% of the Bible. I invite you to decide that you want to be a more thorough Bible student than that. To read through the whole Bible in a year averages out to about three chapters a day. I’ll provide four paragraphs of commentary on some aspect of that day’s reading, followed by a brief prayer.

The easiest way to participate in these projects is to subscribe. That’ll get you an email reminder every morning, which will take you right to that day’s posting.

I also encourage everyone to feel free to offer a comment, to submit a question for Q&A, or to share an article with your friends, via Facebook or X or Instagram. I hope you find the content here useful, and if you do, I’d be grateful if you let others know about it.

Later this morning we’ll be heading in to the clinic to begin the 9th round of chemotherapy. I’ll be pretty worn out by the time we get done this afternoon; that’s why I’m up early, getting today’s writing in. I’ll post the next prayer letter early next week, updating everyone on the specifics of what’s happening on this cancer journey. In the meantime, I’d be glad for you to say a prayer for me.

The love of Jesus holds us all –