Sometimes you just need to breathe. Pause from the routine. Unplug from the everyday. And think, pray, focus, and give concerted attention to the big picture. 

This week I need to breathe. 

However this exercise can not simply be an adding fresh ideas, thoughts, habits, and rhythms ... I realize it also requires subtraction. Therefore my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blog feeds will go blank for the next few days. But hopefully my mind won't.

The other day I caught myself red handed. Which is really awkward in case you didn't know. No one is watching but you still feel guilty, vulnerable, and penitent, all at the same time. I had my twitter account open and I was trying to think of something cool to say. See? Guilty.

Preachers face a ton of expectations. Fair or not, people develop and inherit ideas about us and assume we have the script. Some of these conjectures surface when no one is expecting them. They can jump out from nowhere and smack you in the head. Others are on a schedule. Holidays have a particular way of revealing certain pastoral expectations. Especially if one of these special days falls on a Sunday. Visitors and members a like can base their attendance, dress, company, and overall demeanor on one of these days. 

I stumbled across this quote while studying for this Sunday's sermon. It comes from Daniel Akin's commentary on 1, 2, 3 John. I believe the nature and precision of his point is only growing in importance. Enjoy.

• There is a tendency in some modern theologies to transpose the equation "God is love" into the reverse, "Love is God." But this is not a Johannine (or a biblical) idea. As John makes absolutely clear in [1 John 4:7-21], the controlling principle of the universe is not an abstract quality of "love," but a sovereign, living God who is the source of all love, and who (as Love) himself loves. Because his very nature is love, mercy and goodness flow from God like a beautiful river, as sunlight radiates from the sun. Love, real love has it's ultimate source and origin in God. It is not an abstract concept but a concrete action ... (The New American Commentary, Vol. 38).

Recently, I publicly acknowledge my addiction to Netflix. I have a problem. And I'm not the only one -- I feel better already. In a previous generation, millions of people were held captive by the suffocating limitations of live television. The show you could watch was the one on one channel at one time. But that was simply not good enough for us fast-past consumers.

I picked up the yellow sleeved book at a Barnes & Noble while I was attending seminary in Denver. It had the simple yet inflammatory title, god Is Not Great. The font size grew with each subsequent word, making 'god' not only strikingly lowercase but also the smallest word in the title.

Here are seven books I am currently reading and a brief explanation of why I am reading each one ... 

1.) The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Patrick Lencioni. There are many reason a pastor picks up a book on business leadership. Honestly, none of those apply here. I heard Patrick Lencioni's speak at the Willow Creek Summit last year. He was hilarious, wise, and humble. I had to get some more. But aside from my growing affection for Lencioni this book belonged to my late father-in-law and every time I read one of his old books I meet him through his notes, highlights, and underlines. That is a joy.

The Apostle Paul had no idea what he was doing. 

Think about it. Could he have had any idea that a thank you letter he was writing from a Roman prison to a church in first century Philippi would be preserved as part of the Christian Scriptures? Do you think he knew that about any of his work? Some evidence suggestion he understood a larger scope in his correspondence with Timothy. But did Paul ever really know he was writing the Bible? 

Last week Hilary Rosen called out the bride of presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney. In the context of the former governor's understanding of women's economic struggles, Rosen warned Mitt not to use his wife as a universal guide because "she never worked a day in her life." Of course, in our tweet-before-you-think society one comment turned into a firestorm of social media back-and-forth. In fact from what I can tell Ann Romney signed-up for a Twitter account just so she could get in on the action.