I've been taking a break from electronic communication for the last week.  For seven full days, I went without e-mailing, Facebooking, blogging, or browsing (with the exception of looking up a couple of train schedules).  Today, I'm breaking that "fast" by allowing myself to get back into some blogging and browsing, which I consider to be recreational activities -- but even so, I'm hoping to keep my time on-line a bit limited, and I'm planning to stay away from e-mailing and Facebooking for another full week, until I resume "regular life" at the conclusion of my two-week vacation.

The break from electronic communication has been good, but not transcendent.  It wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be (I actually feared that I might go through withdrawal symptoms!) -- but at the same time, I don't feel like I've "come to see the evils of modern technologies" either.  I've heard of other people doing such forms of "fasting" with dramatically different results... So maybe I did it wrong.  But honestly, for me the experience has been kind of "Mmwah."  During my time without electronic communication, I felt like I was neither Darth Vader, suffering a painful death apart from my machinery, nor Henry David Thoreau, completely escaping the corruptions of civilization to discover my true self again.  I felt like I was plain old me, just without electronic communication.  I suppose it might have been foolish to expect anything different.

On the flip side of things, I can say that our family had a lovely week of vacation.  I've invested much of my "extra" time in playing with my kids, talking with my wife, and just plain resting.  Our family enjoyed a few days at a CenterParcs cabin in the northern part of Belgium -- and it really was a refreshing experience for us all.  Now it's onto Phase Two of our vacation, back here in Amsterdam... with (limited) electronic communication.

I've haven't been able to get the implications out of my mind.  Last weekend, I watched a recent episode of the television program, "Glee."  The show was titled "Grilled Cheesus," and it offered a fascinating glimpse into the public perception of faith / religion / spirituality in America these days.  The show featured some beautiful music -- haunting stuff, really --  and a bizarre mix of comedy and tragedy that brilliantly demonstrated the good, the bad, and the ugly of American Christianity.  And I haven't been able to stop thinking about the possible implications for my own life of faith in this post-modern, pluralistic culture of ours.

Wikipedia offers the following summary of the episode, which seems quite complete and comprehensive -- so, instead of trying to do it myself, I'll just quote directly its entry on "Grilled Cheesus" (in order to familiarize those who might not have seen the episode for themselves):

When glee club co-captain Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) believes he has found the face of Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, he asks for three prayers to be granted: the first is for the school football team to win a game. He promises to return the favor by honoring Jesus in Glee Club that week. When his first prayer comes true, Finn asks the glee club to pay tribute to Jesus through song.

Club member, Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), is devastated when his father Burt (Mike O'Malley) suffers a heart attack. His best friend, Mercedes (Amber Riley), sings Whitney Houston's "I Look to You" to him, hoping he will find strength in faith. However, Kurt reveals he is an atheist. Cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), also an atheist, takes umbrage at the glee club singing religious songs and has Kurt make a formal complaint. When confronted by guidance counselor, Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), Sue admits that as a child, she prayed that God would cure her sister Jean (Robin Trocki), who has Down syndrome. Her prayers went unanswered, leading her to conclude that God does not exist.

Mercedes, Rachel, and Quinn (Dianna Agron) pray for Burt, with Rachel singing "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl at his bedside. Kurt is resistant, and at glee club rehearsal sings The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand", stating that at his mother's funeral all he wanted was for his father to tell him everything was going to be ok. Instead he simply took his hand, he then states that his faith takes the form of love for his father. He accepts an invitation from Mercedes to attend her church, where the choir sing "Bridge over Troubled Water". At the church service, Mercedes asks the congregation to pray for Kurt and Kurt's father.

Finn's remaining prayers, for his girlfriend Rachel (Lea Michele) to let him touch her breasts and for him to be reinstated as quarterback, also come true. However, his reinstatement as quarterback occurs when his replacement, Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), is injured during a game when a member of the opposing football team tackles Sam and dislocates his shoulder. Finn feels responsible and confesses his guilt to Emma, who tells him it is unlikely God is communicating with him through a grilled cheese sandwich. A despondent Finn doubts his new-found faith, singing R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion".

At Burt's bedside, Kurt tells his still unconscious father that while he is an atheist, he feels he should have accepted his friends' prayers. As Kurt cries, Burt begins to regain consciousness and is able to squeeze his son's hand. Meanwhile, Sue visits Jean in her residential home and discusses God with her sister. Jean asks Sue if she may pray for her, and Sue accepts. Later, the glee club comes together to sing Joan Osborne's "One of Us". Sue watches the performance, but tells Will she will not report him for allowing a religious song. At home, Finn eats the remainder of the grilled cheese sandwich.

It's a really well-done episode, which can still be found on Hulu (though, unfortunately, this means of accessing the video is only available if you have an American IP address).  If you haven't seen it, I would recommend that you give it a try.  If you're an American Christian, be warned that you might be inclined to feel offended... Glee's natural view towards Christianity is not very positive (i.e. one of the lead antagonists on the show is a vindictive cheerleader who wears a cross around her neck and heads up the school's Chastity Club -- all while hypocritically getting herself pregnant and regularly terrorizing the show's protagonists).  But I think it's an instructive process, all the same.

Anyway, within the storyline of "Grilled Cheesus," I'm particularly intrigued to notice three examples of "Christians," responding to the situation with Kurt's father in the hospital and Kurt's natural antagonism towards faith (it's probably also be significant to note that Kurt is gay).  In particular, the characters of Quinn, Finn, and Mercedes offer markedly different approaches to the situation which can be highly instructive for people within the church today.

Quinn (the pretty, hypocritical cheerleader) is snarly, snarky, defensive.  When Kurt suggests that he's bothered by the idea of faith in the supernatural, Quinn snips back at him and talks about the protection of her religious rights.  She doesn't offer much sympathy to Kurt's situation but rather seems to care more about herself than others.  It seems to me (as much as I don't like to admit it) that Quinn represents the majority of active Evangelical Christians in America.

In contrast to Quinn, Finn (the quarterback and male lead in the glee club) is dopey, superstitious, and easily swayed by the circumstances.  He prays to a burned grilled cheese sandwich, and believes that the sandwich is genuinely working for him.  Though he doesn't seem to be as malicious as Quinn, his prayers are primarily self-centered.  His response to Kurt's situation is superficial and ineffective.  And when the silliness of some of his beliefs are pointed out, he swings to the opposite extreme and renounces all traces of faith.  It seems to me that Finn represents the majority of "cultural Christians" in America.

Representing a third (and better) alternative, Mercedes is a Christian who is firm in her convictions, who responds out of relationship, and who invites unashamed interaction without apology.  She's the only Christian who is a genuine friend to Kurt, even though he is proudly gay and atheistic.  She genuinely seems to care about his situation and pleads with Kurt (out of the context of their relationship) to not block out people who are sincerely trying to help him as best as they know how.  When she invites him to a worship service at her church, she asks her spiritual family to pray with her for Kurt and his father, and the church reaches out to include Kurt in spite of his disbelief.  In the end, Kurt comes to appreciate the heart behind Mercedes' Christ-centered actions -- even if he cannot fully embrace the life of faith for himself -- and their relationship is strengthened for future interaction.  It seems to me that Mercedes offers  an ideal for those of us meaningfully trying to follow Jesus and represent Him to the outside world.

But what do you think?  How would you react if you were one of the members of the William McKinley High School Glee Club, in the midst of all these events?  How can we learn from Quinn, Finn, and Mercedes?  And what do you think about that dramatic arrangement of "I Want to Hold Your Hand?" :-)

My absentee ballot for the 2010 Ohio elections has been sitting on my desk for over a week now.  It stares at me with its stars and stripes, with its empty look -- but I can only stare back.  I'm honestly at an impasse about how to get any further in filling it out and sending it back in.

Does anybody know of a good source of objective, adequate-but-not-overwhelming (on-line) source of information for guiding Ohio voters for the coming elections?

What I really wish for is some kind of multiple-choice "test" to determine my personal preferences -- ideally with the possibility to weight some issues more heavily than others -- but I haven't been able to find anything remotely along these lines for this year's state elections.  In the Netherlands, they have a site called the StemWijzer (VotePointer).  Even for the last American Presidential elections, they had some sites that offered similar advice.  But this time around, I'm feeling frustrated by the apparent paucity of information along these lines...

My political views have become too complicated (for better, for worse) to go strictly by party lines.  And yet, I don't feel like I want to spend more than an hour or two researching the possibilities -- and even that hour or two gets maddening when it's purely based on wading through propaganda from the directly involved parties.  So I'm hoping that somehow, someone out there might have some information that could help me... Please?

I recently heard a fascinating episode from Radiolab (from their archives) about the scientific phenomenon of emergence.  Have you ever heard of it?  It's basically that old idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  But more specifically, it's an observable phenomenon in nature which is perhaps best demonstrated by a colony of ants.  An individual ant is incapable of higher thought; it cannot make decisions or solve problems -- and if the ant is isolated, he will be incapable of much meaningful activity.  However, when an ant colony works together, they have an amazing ability to make decisions and solve problems.  There is no leader who is directing the ants -- no great, overarching vision or strategy -- but somehow, they manage to thrive in some of the most hostile environments on earth because they work in community, allowing group dynamics to empower them for tasks which should by all reasonable means be impossible for such tiny creatures to do.

It all reminds me of Proverbs 30:24-28 (a verse which was actually quoted in the Radiolab episode).  There it says, "Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:  Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks; a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings' palaces." I recently blogged about this section of verses over at Proverbs 365.  But suffice to say:  I'm amazed -- just like King Solomon was and the producers of Radiolab were -- by the phenomenon of emergence, embedded within the natural world.  It feels supernatural, inexplicable... and holy.  Oddly enough, "holy" was the word used to describe the phenomenon by one of the hosts of the radio program, even though I'm quite confident (from listening to several other episodes of the program) that he is an avowed scientific atheist.  Yet even he could not help but be awed by this miracle that we observe in ants, coneys, and locusts (among other creatures).

It turns out that the scientific phenomenon of emergence can also be found within human society.  You know how sometimes kids will have a contest in which they're supposed to guess the number of jelly-beans in a large glass jar?  It's a fairly common "experiment" that can show the occurence of emergence among humans.  Specifically:  there's no really practical way for kids to know any sort of formula for determining how many jelly-beans might fill a given glass jar -- and honestly, even if there were a formula for trying to figure this sort of thing out, it would result in a crude approximation.  Not a precise number.  And typically, when kids in a school class-room try to guess the number of jelly-beans in a jar, no one actually ends up getting the exact number correct.  In fact, most of the guesses are way off -- either much too high of a number or much too low.   But here's what's spooky:  You add up the totals from the guesses and divide it by the number of people guessing (i.e. working out the mean)... and you'll almost always end up with a number that is remarkably close to the actual number of jelly-beans in the jar!  To me, that's simply astounding.  I honestly don't know what to make of it...

Apparently, even our thought processes are an exercise in emergence.  That is:  there's no real technical reason why our brain cells should be able to organize themselves into coherent thoughts.  Again, the radio program explains it better than I ever could -- but really, it is a miracle if you think about it (please excuse the pun).

So what do you think about emergence?  Have you heard any other information to round out the picture of this phenomenon?  I'm curious to research it a bit more...

It just so happens that I'm quoted in one of the major Dutch newspapers today.  Cool, huh?

My quote is in a full two-page spread about our kids' school.  It's a pretty cool article -- talking about the ways that the school has had a dramatic turn-around (for the better) over the last five years -- and I have to say that I'm pretty proud to say that our family is a part of this school.  We decided to enroll Elliot in this school five years ago, even though it was rated quite low, because we liked the direction that the school seemed to be headed, we really felt a good click with the kindergarten teacher who would be Elliot's primary point of contact for his first two years in the public sphere, we enjoyed the diversity of the school (most Amsterdam schools are surprisingly segregated), and we appreciated the fact that the school administration was extremely open to our involvement as parents (even though we were just a couple of foreigners).

For the last several years (almost since the beginning), Marci has served as a part of the school's Ouderraad (OR), which works kind of like an American Parent-Teacher Organization.  And for the last two years, I've been serving on the schools' Medezeggenschap Raad (MR), which is a bit like an American school board though perhaps not quite as formal.  Because of this involvement, we really feel a sense of ownership for what's happened at the Basisschool Frankendael.  And we rejoice -- along with all the other families and school staff -- in the results of the new inspection giving the school its highest marks in decades.  It's also fun to see a lot of the publicity which has gone along with it (television reports, newspaper articles, etc.).

So anyway, here is a link to the electronic version of the Volkskrant article, in case you'd like to read the article for yourself.  My quote is in the very last column.  For the non-Dutch speakers, here is a rough translation of the section featuring my quote:

The Frankendael has a current enrollment of 177 students, 15 under the required minimum enrollment.  If the school remains at this level for three years, it will be forced to close or to fuse with another school in the area.

That would be a tragedy, says Eric Asp (33).  He and his wife feel that the other schools in the neighborhood are too "aristocratic."  Although it's not obvious from exterior appearances, his three children are immigrants -- because they're American.  They made a conscious decision to enroll their children in a diverse school.  The same is true for Jasper Andries (39).  His daugher, Nova-Leigh, is half-Antillean.  "We chose this school because of its small size and because this school is a true representation of Amsterdam..."

I can't say that my quote is particularly brilliant -- just one word, really.  And of all the words that were spoken in my brief interview with the reporter, they picked the one word that made me sound like a bit of a grumpy immigrant with a chip on my shoulder.  But oh well... It was cool to be quoted in such a major national newspaper -- and to be a part of such a positive development here in our neighborhood.  I'm proud of our school.

Our kids are expected to stay in their beds and stay quiet until 7:30 in the morning.  That doesn't mean they're always asleep up until 7:30, however.  This morning, I thought it was really interesting to hear my kids explain a number of clues which indicate to them that the morning is about to start.  Here's how they know that the day is supposed to start:

1. The end of the couch becomes yellow (this couch is visible through the crack in the door to their bedroom, and it's illuminated by light from the dining room, where I usually sit as I read the Bible and do some journalling to start the day).
2. The light from the computer screen reflects from the threshhold to Elliot and Olivia's room (I usually turn on the computer in the last 5-10 minutes before the kids get up).
3. They can hear the sound of typing on the computer keyboard.
4. They can hear the sound of Dad sneezing (a bi-product of my chronic allergy issues, which always seem to be worst in the morning when my body is apparently eliminating all of its accumulated allergens from the night's sleep).

I think it's funny to hear their perspectives -- especially the fact that my nose serves as the house's rooster -- but it also feels vaguely nostalgic and sentimental to me, even though it's not even in the past yet (weird, huh?).  Hearing my children's perspective reminds me of the smell of blueberry muffins and the sound of my parents singing from when I was growing up (which I can now recall as some of the signs of the morning in our household, as I was growing up).

Blueberry muffins and singing sound a lot more romantic than the clickety-clack of a computer keyboard and a series of sneezes!  But I'm sure there were other, more mundane, signs of the morning from when I was a kid, too.  It's just that the cream of nostalgia rose to the top over time.  I'll be interested to hear my kids' perspective on signs of the morning again, 20 years from now...

At the Amsterdam50 worship gathering this past weekend, Bob Phillips referred to an old pamphlet from the early 1970s, which described life as a school which is meant to teach us about God.  On the one level, this pamphlet -- and let's be honest, the concept of a gospel tract in general -- can be pretty outdated, cheesy, and for some possibly even counter-productive to the message of Jesus.  But with this particular explanation of the "School of Life," I found a special sense of resonance.  To me, it seemed more witty than cheesy -- more clever than contrived.  And in the end, I think it gives a beautiful explanation of the life of faith.

So I asked Bob if he could send me an electronic version of the pamphlet -- originally developed by an organization called Jews for Jesus -- and he directed me to their website, where I was able to download a copy that I've adapted to share here.  Take a look below for the explanation of the School of Life...

So what do you think about this explanation of the life of faith?  Is it cheesy, or is it cool?  Does it resonate with you or not?  I'd be curious to hear what others might think of something like this...

There's a church in Seattle called Mars Hill -- founded by a guy named Mark Driscoll -- which is generally marked by its fierce commitment to Reformed (Calvinistic) theology, its high value on preaching as the foundation for ministry, and its sharp focus on developing men as church planters and church leaders.  If you've heard about Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll, you probably have an opinion about them.  People tend to love 'em or hate 'em.

I personally have mixed feelings about Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll.  I appreciate their theological rigor, and I admire the strength of their convictions.  I'm impressed by the way they embrace church history while simultaneously trying to contextualize their ministry for their environment.  And I'm generally a fan of anyone who is passionately pursuing God and seeking to make disciples for Jesus (which I certainly think that Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll are doing).  At times, though, I confess that I've been bothered by the subtle arrogance betrayed in the ways they express their convictions (perhaps more in earlier years than today).  I'm not a big fan of the current large church trends in "video campusing" (primarily because of the cult-of-personality and consumeristic overtones that go along with such a means of growing a church).  And while I seriously value the role of preaching in Christian ministry, I don't feel that it all starts and stops with preaching, like Mark Driscoll (and his fans) would probably tend to say.  None of these personal points of contention are enough to outweigh the good that Mars Hill is doing; I just personally favor a more grass-roots model of ministry which more meaningfully blends various spiritual gifts in a team-centered approach to church leadership.

Anyway, I say all this to set up an interesting article that I recently came across, written by the youth pastor at Mars Hill:  Dustin Nickerson).  The article is entitled, "Is Your Youth Group Accomplishing Anything?" and I'd say it's definitely worth a read (only 569 words long).  What's interesting about the article is the way that it undermines many of my points of critique of Mars Hill.  First of all, the article has a down-to-earth tone to it -- and it specifically makes a point to say that, "There is no perfect youth group playbook or set of procedures to follow if you want it all to 'work.'  The only perfect model is to walk daily in the Spirit, to be faithful to his leading in your life as a youth pastor, and to examine the Scriptures and let them be authoritative in how you decide to build your ministry."  I really appreciate that perspective, especially coming from Mars Hill.  Secondly, the current approach to their church's youth ministry, as described by Nickerson, seems to be very grass-roots, decentralized, and surprisingly shifted away from the attractional style of church that seems to be so epitomized in the preaching ministry of Mark Driscoll.  Does this mean a shift in the long-term trajectory of Mars Hill (and other churches like it)?  Not neccessarily.  But it is an interesting shift -- in Mark Driscoll's own church, no less!  Finally, I appreciate the focus on making disciples more than simply proclaiming the truth.  I've often asked the same question that Nickerson asked:  "My leaders had a heart to disciple, but how could they in 90 minutes that were filled with programming?"  Again, I don't know if this really means anything in the grander scheme of ministry -- but I'm encouraged to see that Mars Hill is earnestly trying to sort through these issues, in some ways that might be traditionally seen as being contrary to their more well-known approaches to church planting.

I've long felt a kind of allergic reaction to the campy attitudes that crop up around a particular style of ministry -- be it organic house churches or technology-driven mega-churches on the other end.  In our own church here in Amsterdam, we've tried to cull from numerous resources in creating a system and strategy that's uniquely suited to our people and our city.  But I guess I'm just saying that it's cool to see how one church -- which I would typically consider to be loudly championing a particular "camp" of ministry ideology -- is trying to break through the artificial distinctions and try to figure out what really works.  While we're all so busy in trying to find the right answer to the "multiple choice test" of ministry, in the end it seems that we might discover that the answer is "all of the above."

Another month has recently passed, and thus it's time for another review of my Proverbs 365 project.  As you may know, ever since the first day of 2010, I've been taking a Proverb for each day of the year and then trying to consider it and apply it for 21st Century living.  Sometimes the daily entries take the form of an essay or a more traditional devotional meditation; other times, the entries have been more in the form of short stories and allegories.  Every day it's something different!  I've learned a lot through the daily discipline -- but it's been pretty challenging, too, to keep up with such a pace of writing.  Now that I'm official three-quarters of the way through the year, though, it's really starting to look like I'll be able to complete the project (Lord willing).  I'm already starting to edit some of the stuff that I wrote earlier in the year -- since I've been emphasizing regular (daily) output over top-quality writing... and I'm starting to wonder about the various possibilities for pursuing further publication, following the completion of the year.  I still don't know what exactly will ultimately come out of the Proverbs 365 initiative, but I feel like the intense focus on this section of the Bible has benefitted me tremendously.  It's been an educational experience on par with a high-level seminary class.  There is a lot to be learned from a careful study of the Proverbs.

So anyway, as usual, I'm highlighting three of my personal favorite posts from the past month (always withthe hope that I might encourage some cross-over readership).  During this last month of reading, it really seemed like leadership lessons were popping out at me from the Proverbs.  So I'm going to hold to this theme in choosing my top three posts from September:

Through my years in leadership, I've learned that managing conflict is one of the most challenging -- and yet also one of the most strategic -- elements of leadership.  For a long time, I've been mindful of Matthew 5:23-24 (which says that you're supposed to go and talk things out if you know that someone has been hurt or offended by something you've said or done) and Matthew 18:15-17 (which says that you're supposed to go and talk things out if you feel hurt or offended by something that someone else has said or done), but in reading through Proverbs chapter 10, I was delighted to discover what might be something of summarized version of biblical conflict management.  It's in Proverbs 10:10:  "He who winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin." I wrote some of my reflections in P1010 - The 13-Word Summary of Biblical Conflict Management.  Now that I've read the post back to myself, some weeks after having originally written it, I'm not so sure if all the principles of Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 are completely represented within these 13 words -- but you can read my reflections and decide for yourself...

I found a more simple and more straightforward lesson in leadership when I read Proverbs 20:28: "Love and faithfulness keep a king safe; through love his throne is made secure ." As I thought about all the different styles of leadership -- positional leadership, charasmatic leadership, visionary leadership, and so on -- I started to think back on the leadership influences in my own life and remember how powerful a role relational leadership has played in my life.  With this in mind, I wrote P2028 - Leading by Loving.  As you think about your own opportunities for leading and influencing others, I would challenge you to take this theme of leading by loving to heart.

Finally, I've long admired Abraham Lincoln's example of leadership -- not just as a great political leader, but also as a person of deep conviction and faith.  I know from various biographies that he was well-versed in knowledge of the Bible (including the Proverbs).  But even so, it really struck me when I read Proverbs 28:2 and saw how fitting it was for the times in which Lincoln exercised his leadership.  The Proverb says, "When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a man of understanding and knowledge maintains order." And as I reflected on the Proverb and on the example of Abraham Lincoln, I realized that leadership depends greatly upon the leader's true knowledge and understanding of the people and the situations at play -- reacting from a deeper sense of wisdom than from a sense of what's comfortable or practical.  I wrote my reflections in a post entitled P2802 - Abe is Awesome.  Don't let the title mislead you:  neither President Lincoln nor King Solomon were perfect in their character or in their leadership.  But we have a lot to learn from these two great leaders.

Believe it or not, these three pieces are only a sampling of the leadership lessons that I learned from the Proverbs throughout the month of September.  Not coincidentally, the last month also represented a refining period in my own leadership -- sorting through some of my own motives and having to help lead others through conflict situations as well.  If the leadership themes from the Proverbs interest you, here is a listing of some of the relevant entries from this past month, with direct links to the content:

• P521 - Big Brother or a big brother
• P907 - Careful What You Say to Paul
• P1010 - The 13-Word Summary of Biblical Conflict Management
• P1103 - Integrity in Leadership
• P1215 - The Value of Teachability
• P1516 - What Should We Do with the Regrettable-But-Inevitable
• P1621 - The Trials and Tribulations of an Angry Black Thunderhead
• P1722 - Eeyores and Poohs
• P2028 - Leading by Loving
• P2119 - Dealing with Critics
• P2723 - The Ups and Downs of Shepherding
• P2802 - Abe is Awesome

And for a complete listing of September's content, here are the titles of all 30 entries, along with direct links to the rest of the content:

• P124 - God's Ungodly Sense of Humor
• P211 - Fortunately Flanked by Mr. D and Mr. U
• P317 - Pleasant Paths of Peace
• P423 - Dating Wisdom from the Proverbs
• P521 - Big Brother or a big brother
• P601 - Ensnared
• P713 - The Pious Adulteress
• P810 - Approaching Divine Wisdom Like Indiana Jones Would
• P907 - Careful What You Say to Paul
• P1010 - The 13-Word Summary of Biblical Conflict Management
• P1103 - Integrity in Leadership
• P1215 - The Value of Teachability
• P1303 - The Power of Words
• P1411 - Johnny Appleseed
• P1516 - What Should We Do with the Regrettable-But-Inevitable
• P1621 - The Trials and Tribulations of an Angry Black Thunderhead
• P1722 - Eeyores and Poohs
• P1808 - Like Myles Pizza Pub
• P1918 - Trams and Knives and Gymnastics Routines
• P2028 - Leading by Loving
• P2119 - Dealing with Critics
• P2203 - Double-Proverbs
• P2323 - I Am the Customer
• P2430 - The State of the Church in Europe
• P2514 - Waiting for Jerry's
• P2612 - A Truly Hopeless Situation
• P2723 - The Ups and Downs of Shepherding
• P2802 - Abe is Awesome
• P2908 - Bouncy Balls
• P3024 - Learning from the Underdogs

October, of course, has already started -- and the Proverbs 365 project keeps moving along with it.  Please visit http://proverbs365.ericasp.com to keep up on all the latest.  Also, please feel free to spread the word, too... One of the distinct advantages of the Proverbs is that it's easy to tune into them, whenever one might so choose. It's not like if you missed the first nine months, then you're "behind" or anything like that. The Proverbs are just like these little power pellets that can be consumed and digested immediately. It's never too late to start enjoying them!