Joseph F. Radosevich

We had a baby this week, so my workouts have been thrown off. It's good and normal to take a break every 4-6 weeks. I skipped most days because I've been at the hospital or very tired. Today, was a little more normal, and I wanted to fit in a little bit of exercise. That was a chance to try a workout called Swing-Swing-Other Thing. I got the idea from Pat Flynn. Here is what I did: I set a timer to go off every minute for 10 minutes. I picked a 52 lbs kettlebell. Minute 1: 10 Kettlebell Swings Minute 2: 10 Kettlebell Swings Minute 3: 3 Overhead Presses with each hand Minute 4: 10 Kettlebell Swings Minute 5: 10 Kettlebell Swings Minute 6: 3 Overhead Presses with each hand Minute 7: 10 Kettlebell Swings Minute 8: 10 Kettlebell Swings Minute 9: 3 Overhead Presses with each hand Minute 10: Suitcase Carry down and back. I finished with a few stretches and was done in 15 minutes. It felt good.

Our new baby girl was born on Monday. Mom and baby are happy, healthy, and home. I haven't decided if I'm posting her name here yet. It is interesting to have a new baby and face the challenges of delivery and newborn care while knowing the Lord 5 years-better than the last time and 15 years-better than the first time. I've been noticing Bible verses for the last year that explain what it means for God to be Father and meditating on what it means to be a father like the Lord. It is glorious that the Lord would tell us to call him father and that he would be so kind, patient, generous, and compassionate.

I don't ever care to see an AI-generated video. I already see what I suspect on YouTube are AI-generated or AI-enhanced Beatles videos. I can't stand them and want nothing to do with them. I want the real thing, and I suspect that will be what everyone wants in the future. We will want reality and authenticity. That means real... Writing Music Art Preaching Teaching Sports It means it is still a good time to be a writer, pastor, musician, creator, etc. You just have to do something that AI can't do yet: be you.

 Right now, I have two books on my nightstand. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. This is short, so I'll finish it this week. It is so good, though. It uses simple scenes to show what war is like for one soldier. I've read so many books on war and soldiering that do not capture it as simply and powerfully as this. I picked this up on the giveaway stand at the library two years ago. I'm just now getting around to reading the books that I own but haven't read. 21 Days to Childlike Prayer by Jed Coppenger. This is the best book on prayer that I've ever read. What are you reading?

1 Chronicles 12:32 describes men " from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."  It is good to understand the times we live in. Two issues that affect our times are drugs and gambling. How can a pastor understand the times we live in especially regarding drugs and gambling? We shouldn't assume drugs and gambling are the way they were in the past. One difference is that sports gambling wasn't legal the way that it is now.  I've been listening to two podcasts to help me understand these issues. The Poisoning is a YouTube podcast about the fentanyl crisis. Against the Rules with Michael Lewis  Season 4 is about gambling and how that is rapidly changing our world.   I highly recommend both podcasts to understand these times.

We had a snow storm blow through on Sunday, and our church cancelled our services. I turned on Jared Wilson's sermon for my family from the Midwestern Seminary 2024 National Conference. I wanted to have some fun with my notes, so I folded a mini pocket mod notebook from one piece of printer paper. I turned the pocket mod into a sermon booklet while I listened. Keeping my hands busy adding pictures and expanding the applications helps me listen. I enjoyed having separate spaces to write on each page. I felt like I could start new for each point. I added the back page additional applications and the pictures to make it more like a book.  I preach much more than I listen to sermons, but I will probably do something like this at most conferences that I go to. Kids and teens should totally be encouraged to do something like this. Benefits: This gives space to be creative. This is easy to keep on top of your bible. I don't fumble between notebook and bible. Mistakes don't ruin a ...

Every year, we set goals with our kids in 4 categories. They have motivated us all in different ways. We have 4 categories: Eat, Learn, Read, Do.  Here are mine.  Eat Learn to cook joloff rice. This is a west African dish. Learn Learn the notes on the guitar fretboard to the 12th fret.  Read Read 5 novels at least 150 years old. Do Complete 12 monthly challenges --one per month. I'm starting with practicing writing cursive every day in the month of January. These are mostly going to be low-stakes habit projects. Workout 200 times. What are your goals in 2025?

My workout tomorrow will be my 208th for this year. My goal was 200. That allowed time off for vacation, sickness, travel, etc. This is my second year setting goals for the number of workouts. I think 200 is a pretty good goal. I switched this year to a physical journal. I love it so much better. It is lined graph paper so it makes it easy to make lists into charts. I highly recommend it. I have done Dan John's Easy Strength plan twice and am now doing Pat Flynn's kettlebell plan in his book  Paleo Fitness for Dummies . There is a saying in the fitness world that a trainer who writes his own plans has an idiot for a client. That's true. I've largely written my own plans over the years so I've been my own idiot. I'm finding holes in my fitness when doing plans written by others. Flynn's plan has me sore in places that I don't normally feel without beating me up everywhere. I plan to use plans written by others most of the time in 2025.  I made progress th...

In my first post, I wrote about books that I read for the first time in 2024 that were my favorites. In this post, I will highlight my favorite rereads of 2024. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read this 20 years ago or so. When I reread it this year, I was blown away at how great it still is. I've watched movie versions many times with my wife, and this is still fresh and interesting. It's so wonderful. It's not just for women. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. I read this in college in Southern Literature class. I was curious what I would think having read 800 or so books since I first read this. If you like Southern culture and literary fiction, then this is really good. If you don't, then you'll hate this.  The Wilderking Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers. I loved this the first time I read it (in 2023). It is still so wonderful. It's about a 12-18 year old boy, so you have to like young adult fiction. Going forward, I would probably reread the sec...

Close to half of the books that I read this year were rereads. Several of the rereads were my favorite books this year, so I thought I would write two lists: best books that I read for the first time and best rereads. I'm pretty selective about what books to read, so I loved 75-85% of the books that I read. These are just the ones that I scanned on a list and immediately called these my favorites of the year. I'm thinking a new standard for best books is the books that you read again. These are books that I read for the first time. Fiction Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. I like to read juvenile fiction and young adult fiction when I go on vacation. I read this while we were in Williamsburg, VA for vacation. It's wonderful. Everything about it is great. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This is a really fun, but bizarre mystery. If you like quirky humor and mystery with a little absurdity thrown in, then this is great. This is another young adult novel. Non-Fiction In...

Baptist News published an article on rural churches in Indiana . The author interviewed a number of people serving in rural Indiana. I've heard a number of those comments and trends. I thought I'd respond with my own observations here. I pastor a church with an average of 65 people in a town of 300 people. There is no stop light or grocery store in our county of 5000 people. We are very rural, but if we drive 16 miles, we can be in a town of 10,000 people with a Wal-Mart Supercenter and an Aldi. Here are my scattered thoughts responding to some of what is said in the article. Churches and leaders using 1970's methods to search for a pastor are not going to be successful. A paragraph in the state newspaper or on a job board is not going to get many views or applications. That might have worked in the 70's, 80's, and 90's, but it is time to change how you look for a pastor. Lost people in rural America are not financially responsible for their own pastors and miss...

Dan John's Humane Burpee was a great way to finish some of my workouts last month. It took me around 4-5 minutes. Instead of doing normal burpees which includes a squat and push-up in every rep, this has 15 swings followed by 4 squats/4 push-ups; then 15 swings/3 squats/3 push-ups; etc. down to 1. It is 75 swings, 10 squats, and 10 push-ups. After all my regular exercises, the swings were tough. Each time, I tried to beat my previous time without throwing up. I've started doing a bit of grip strengthening. I started it because I tried a wrist exercise and it felt so good. I bought a kit on Amazon with different levels. It makes me feel good, but I also hope it helps my grip and elbows for doing pull-ups and my finger strength for guitar. I finished In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton. It is so good! I could hardly put the book down. I walked around for a week saying, "And then the sharks came." I also read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I've seen movie versi...

 This morning, The Gospel Coalition published an article on similar themes to what I wrote about yesterday-- The News Can Wai t. It's an excellent article with similar remedies. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/news-media-what-now/

I stumbled onto a way to improve my life this month. In the week leading up to the election, I stopped checking the news. I limited my news to a newsletter that I read once each morning and once in the afternoon. It made my week so much easier mentally. I didn't think constantly about what is going on in world, USA, or politics.  I liked it so much that I am still doing it almost three weeks later. Anything important will be in the news in either the morning or evening. My mind is freed up to think about more important things--more present things. My conversation is not about the latest controversy.  I don't want my kids memories of these years to be about whatever the latest controversy is. I don't want them to remember me talking about the news all the time. I found that the news can wait.

I love making leaf compost to use in my garden. We have amazing trees around our house, so I pile them up, shred them, pile them, and wait. If I have any extra leaves, I put them in our flower beds as mulch. I put the leaf mold (or leaf compost) around the rhubarb and in our raised beds in the spring. I decided to make a pen this year so that I could hold more and so that it doesn't just look like a messy pile on the ground. I like a tidy garden.  You can see the rhubarb and brussels sprouts in the background. There is rye in those beds but they have been slow to grow. From now on, any leaves that I pile and shred will go in my flower beds. This pile will do its work while the garden rests. If you try this, wear a mask. It makes so much dust. I am paying for not wearing a mask one day.