Joseph F. Radosevich

We took a staycation which had us busy and have a busy month ahead, so I wanted to take a moment to do a quick update. On our staycation, we went to local history sites, a local zoo, a bowling alley, and for ice cream We also played new board games. The Lincoln Home in Springfield was probably the best site that we went to. That same day, we went to the Old State Capital (and saw a naturalization ceremony), Lincoln's tomb, and the Illinois State Military Museum. It was a fun day. On vacation, I usually read Young Adult or Juvenile Fiction. I loved A Single Shard . I also read Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson and Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett.  Our garden is doing great! The weather has been perfect. We have enough salad vegetables to eat that as often as we want. I really like the Purple Roden lettuce that we are trying this year. I enjoy the purple color in the garden. We also have Bright Lights rainbow chard. Radishes (Roxanne) did well too. I just put out more seed. Our herbs ...

You don't need weed cloth. You need thicker mulch. I've written on this before, but I see it all the time. It's in parks and at homes. The recommendations are all over YouTube.  Here is why you don't need weed cloth: Weeds most often grow because the seeds blow in on the wind, get stirred up to the surface by being disturbed, get carried in with the mulch, or travel on the bottoms of shoes. You can't prevent weed seeds from coming in. Weed cloth only prevents seeds that are below it from germinating. If the weeds start growing on top of it, then it cannot help them. I learned from a gardener/florist/nursery owner years ago that you need thick mulch to choke out the seeds that are below. You pick the handful of weeds that grow on the top. As the mulch breaks down, you have to replace it and smother the seeds that have moved in. A related lesson is that you should take advice from people who have demonstrated expertise. The guy on YouTube wearing fancy white Nike shoe...

Don't talk more about pastor work than you talk about Jesus. I'm concerned that there are many pastors and church leaders who are more concerned with getting [fill in the blank] right than they talk about Jesus. They are more concerned with growth, church polity, leadership skills, church discipline, or cultural issues than with the beauty of the king of kings. They are right theologically. Their methods are perfect (as they can make them). Their churches are pure (supposedly). But they never talk about the head of the church. It is a real danger to be distracted by good things or tools. Many of the things that distract us are good and relevant such as church structure, theology, or cultural issues. We can't ignore God's word under the excuse of "just loving Jesus." However, if we don't ever talk about how wonderful Jesus is, then we've lost our way. That goes for parents. Do we talk more about our kids' future careers or their to-do list than we d...

An extended family member teased me about why I introduce my kids to music like The Beatles, Eric Clapton, and Coldplay. Why would I not limit our music to Christian music? Because the whole world belongs to the Lord. It's his world and the beauty, truth, and goodness in it all come from him. It can be marred by sin, but beauty comes from the Lord wherever we find it. That goes for nature, literature, art, and music. It's all his. It also all points to the  beauty, truth, and goodness that come from him. In the same way that all the sun's rays come from the sun, all the beauty of the world points back to the one who is beautiful. We do have to be discerning in some of the content that we introduce the kids to. There are some things that are obscene and never appropriate. There are some things I want to help them think about rather than just keep it off limits to our eyes and conversation like a nude Greek kouros in an art museum. There are some topics best left for married ...

Pat Flynn's book Strong On is the best book I've read on fitness. I picked it up and have been using the workouts this winter and spring. What I love: It's fast. Warm-up. Workout for 20 minutes. Stretch. Move on. It's simple. The book explains just enough, but not too much. It's flexible. Even though it is simple, the workouts and the schedules combine for enormous variety and cover most goals. It's got one tool. Part of being simple is the fact that these workouts use just some kettlebells (and occasionally push-ups). I have a lot of equipment, but that can make it hard because I have to choose which equipment, which exercise, which rep range,etc.  It's comprehensive. This covers all the bases. In my workouts this week, I will cover strength, endurance, mobility, and fat loss. I've read a lot of fitness books. This is the most user-friendly.  I'm not recommending it because I get money for it. I'm not a referral website (even though I'm not...

 One of my New Year goals was to do one challenge each month. January--I relearned cursive. It is so much fun that I use it all the time now. I write with fountain pens and cursive is much better with a fountain pen. February--I took a photo every day. Most days were a little more artistic than normal. I didn't enjoy this challenge as much. March--I checked out a couple of learn-to-draw books from the library and drew one picture each day. I focused on learning new skills. It was awesome and took my doodling to a new level. April--I'm learning to judge temperatures in Celsius. After 6 days, it's not so hard.

When I have a choice of several things to read, I often choose the shortest book first. I adapted this idea from Dave Ramsey's debt snowball. The reading snowball means that you choose the shortest book in your list first and then move on to the next shortest book until you go through the whole stack, shelf, or list. This is a psychological trick that I use to help me feel like I'm making good progress through a list or shelf of books. This keeps me from feeling overwhelmed which the books that I plan to read.  I read a 700 page commentary and realized that I had neglected a lot of other reading while I was going through that one. I had a list of three commentaries that I wanted to read next, and started with the short one. I don't always use this approach. Sometimes, you should read the most relevant or important book. For example, I'm starting a 700 page biography of Abraham Lincoln tonight. I'm also reading The Lord of the Rings right now. Those books are import...

I keep lists of books that I want to read. I have lists on my phone, an album of pictures of books that I want to read, and pages in my pocket notebook for books to read. I constantly look forward to what I get to read next.  Here are screen shots of the lists that I keep on my phone. Maybe this will give up ideas for what to read next.

I've noticed something in the news every time I see a politician. They wear a suit and a tie but no pocket square. I think that is a big mistake. Politicians are the main people wearing suits these days. I wear blazers and sport coats regularly as pastor. You can wear a suit, a blazer, or a sport coat with or without a tie. Without a pocket square, though, it looks like something is off. I've heard someone say that a suit is incomplete without a square. You probably shouldn't be too fancy with a pocket square. There are rules so that you don't draw too much attention to it. Wearing a pocket square should bring your outfit together and finish it. I much prefer a pocket square to a lapel pin or a flower. Three presidents who wore pocket squares are Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan. To make it easy, you can do one of two things. Wear a simple white pocket square with a basic square fold. Wear a pocket square that complements but doesn't exactly match your tie or shirt. Grab...

If you are looking for a study bible, here are my thoughts on the ones that I have and use. I ranked them in order of preference. NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (formerly the NIV Zondervan Study Bible) This is the best study bible that I have. It is so big, though, that you wouldn't want to carry it. The design is really good and the notes are excellent. It focuses on the themes of the bible and the articles are supposed to be a big feature. I haven't read any of them, though. ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible This is a different kind of study bible. I heard it described on the Room for Nuance podcast interview with Jonathan Carswell as the Jesus Storybook Bible for adults. That fits. It has just a few notes per chapter, but it shows how every passage in the Bible points to Jesus. This is great for teachers and for those who struggle to understand the full storyline of the Bible. CSB Study Bible This was my favorite study bible before I bought the NIV Biblical Theology S...

  You Probably Won't Get a Book Deal. . . This is on why people should write even if they don't get a book deal. I feel this, and that is why I've been writing on this for over 200 posts over 6+ years.   Why Hobbies are an Advantage This is on the power of hobbies. There is also something good inside about not getting our identity from our work. Better Ringtones I saw this in David Pierce's newsletter for The Verge. They are softer, less-obnoxious ringtones and notification sounds. I much prefer them. It is a download, and we should all be careful of the things that we download in case of malware. This seems legit, though. As a bonus, here is a photo of my onion seedlings from this morning.

I make a list of things I'm thankful to God for every morning. It's a practice that I learned from a counselor I saw years ago. Lately, I often thank God for teachers who teach me through their writing. I've been thinking about that aspect of writing lately--writing as a form of teaching. I don't sit under a lot of teaching except through the books and articles that I read. I don't know what I would do without the teaching that I get through reading. There are so many questions that would go unanswered, topics I couldn't understand, skills that I wouldn't learn if teachers did not take the time to write out what they have learned. I'm blessed with teacher in biblical studies, leadership, theology, pastoral skills, communication, history, science, parenting, gardening, etc. Writing is also for entertainment, enjoyment, and beauty. Most non-fiction, though fits in the category of teaching. So one reason to write, keep a blog, practice the craft of writing,...

I challenged myself to practice writing in cursive everyday in January. I found that I loved it so much and that it made writing with a fountain pen even more fun, so I've kept it up and write in cursive as much as I can. I'm reading Nuts and Bolts by Roma Agrawal. I would call it a popular history of common but extraordinary innovations like nails, wheels, string, and springs. It's really good. I first read a children's book to my kids by Agrawal on how buildings are built. I'm also reading A Good Old Age by Derek Prime. It's a book by an older pastor on following Jesus as we get older. It would be good for anybody to read, but those coming up on old age or caring for elderly people would be really helped by this book. Here is a link to my cooking playlist for this year. I add songs to the playlist to make it fun while I cook. I've been cooking more since we had our new baby, but I usually cook one to three times a week anyway. I include old songs that I ...

I've started reading abridged novels. Maybe that's a good idea for you too.  What do I mean by abridged? I mean a lightly-abridged version intended for adults. They are often done by scholars. The one's I've been reading tend to be from the mid-1900's. I'm not talking about the Great Illustrated Classics, but those are fun to read with kids. Many older novels have extra descriptions that don't move the story forward. Abridged novels remove the extra so that the plot shines through. Abridged novels are good for novels that you might reread. They give a quick(er) overview that lets you see if you enjoy the author, characters, and plot. Then you can reread the whole thing. I don't want an abridged novel that removes 3/4 of the book. I want one that goes from 1000 pages to 500-600 pages. A good book is worth rereading. You get more each time that you return to it. Abridged novels help with the rereading process. I read an abridged  War and Peace last year a...

I want to share another way that I use commentaries. When I say "another, " I mean in addition to the normal way. Normally, I refer to a specific passage if I have a question about it while I'm preparing a sermon or lesson. It is best to study the passage on your own (with biblical languages if you know them) first. A second way to use a commentary is to use it to be a Bible student ahead of when it is needed. For this purpose, I read a commentary front to back just like a book. I usually read 5-6 pages at a time over a period of months and just soak in the text. Part of my calling as a pastor is to be an expert in the Bible, and it is good for me to grow in my knowledge of the Bible outside of devotions and sermon preparation.  To read a commentary to learn, you need to select a good commentary that is reliable. You don't have to agree with everything, but it should be like learning from a teacher that you trust. If you cannot trust the author, then you probably shou...