What I’m Crunching — November 23, 2025
Books I’m Reading How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe Nearly finished with this one. It’s been an interesting story about how crucial the Irish were to preserving the values that modern Western civilization is built on. From the […]
What I’m Crunching — November 16, 2025
Books I’m Reading Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War I finished this one this week. It’s a remarkable story of perseverance, endurance, and grit. This was the first material I’d read on King Philips’ War, which was absolutely brutal in its effect on the population of New England in the 17th century. In […]
What I’m Crunching — November 9, 2025
Books I’m Reading Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus As a deacon board at church we’ve begun reading this short book on the office of elder. It is so refreshing to be part of a group of church leaders who want to pattern our model after the Scripture. We’ve enjoyed good discussion […]
What I’m Crunching — November 2, 2025
It’s amazing how often non-fiction books narrating the history of various significant periods inevitably confirm specific patterns.
For instance, human nature. Human nature doesn’t change and it won’t until Jesus returns and recreates humanity, the earth, and the heavens. The first generation of Pilgrims lived out certain qualities, many of which enabled them to establish a colony where no European had before. But subsequent generations gradually changed and fell away from these qualities.
Such is human nature. The environment/culture created by those living a certain way produces different qualities in those raised in that culture. These different qualities, when lived out, produce a different culture, and so on and so forth.
The more recent book The Fourth Turning unpacks this well.
What I’m Crunching — October 26, 2025
I’m about halfway through this book and I can’t believe the hardships the Pilgrims experienced.
To travel the treacherous Atlantic as late in the season as they did was only the beginning. The real difficulty came after they landed in New England. They battled internal and external opposition, surprisingly sometimes not so graciously, to simply survive.
We are so soft today.