{"id":29968,"date":"2023-01-12T07:12:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T15:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29968"},"modified":"2023-01-12T07:17:01","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T15:17:01","slug":"the-gap-between-the-two-trapezes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-gap-between-the-two-trapezes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gap Between the Two Trapezes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year I read 115 books, and the year before that I read 150. For a number of years now I have set really high goals of reading pretty much whatever I can get my hands on, and in large quantities. Fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature, journals, periodicals, manuals, cookbooks, and the like. Honestly, I’ve been known to linger at the breakfast table just to read the list of ingredients on the cereal box and almond milk carton. My kids used to mock me (ok, they still do), for how much I read.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So, I have absolutely no problem consuming content.<\/p>\n

As well, if you were to pick up one of my recently read books (the ones I own of course, not loaner books), you would notice that it is chock-full of underlines, asterisks, circles, squiggly-marks, and other notes in the margins. In my opinion, reading without a pen in hand is like, well, not reading.<\/p>\n

So, I have absolutely no problem interacting with content.<\/p>\n

It’s at this point that a finished book will take its rightful and restful place upon my burgeoning shelves. And it is at this point I now am able to realize just how anemic<\/em> I truly am at Analytical and Synoptical Reading(Alder and Van Soren). On the other hand,\u00a0Elementary and Inspectional Reading come quite naturally to me. I can fly through a book quickly, often one-per-day, but if you were to ask me later what it was about or inquire about a key learning, I would look at you with furrowed brow and shrugged shoulders. I couldn’t tell you. Then again, I am the preacher that can wrap up multiple Sunday services and not remember later that same afternoon what I had just taught. My memory is horrible. I retain very little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My wife on the other hand, ah, she remembers everything…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Everything.<\/p>\n

Alas, after digesting “How to Take Smart Notes” (Ahrens)\u00a0I wonder if I have wasted thousands of hours reading and yet not properly retaining.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I would, if I could, like to go back many years and have a “reading do-over.”<\/p>\n

OR, I can start right now.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.\u201d \u2013 Chinese Proverb<\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In these formative months of my doctoral program, I am challenged by the need to read\/think differently. Better. More critically. For retention and application. Subsequently, the challenge extends to that of my writing, even as Ahrens asserts that “Writing is not the outcome of thinking; it is the medium in which thinking takes place.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Whereas, I have 30+ years of experience in writing sermons, devotions, blog posts, emails, leadership lessons and proposals, I believe this doctoral program will require of me (my reading, thinking and writing) a deeper<\/em> response<\/strong>, one that flows from a deeper<\/em> reservoir<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I welcome this challenge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Why? Because it’s what I prayed for.<\/p>\n

This doctoral journey began with a word, a word the Lord God place upon my heart for the next season of my life. The word is “RISK.” It’s not the word I would have naturally gravitated to (thus the sense it was from Jesus). Now as I am in the 2nd half of my life (51 years old), I would have expected a word from the Lord such as “Peace,” “Rest,” or “Take it Easy, You’ve Worked Hard for Many Years, So It’s OK if you Coast the Rest of the Way.” Yah, I would have liked any of those.<\/p>\n

But instead…RISK: \u00a0Go deeper. Take a chance. Take even more chances. Lean in. Let go.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I refer to this space as the “gap between the two trapezes.” It’s scary letting go of one swinging trapeze bar in order to secure the other. The gap between is where the risk is. But, that’s where I sense the Lord is calling me.\u00a0Thus, I begin this graduate degree, and an extended season of\u00a0deeper<\/em> risk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A deeper response<\/strong> requires a deeper reservoir<\/strong>, which requires a deeper risk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here we go!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year I read 115 books, and the year before that I read 150. For a number of years now I have set really high goals of reading pretty much whatever I can get my hands on, and in large quantities. Fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature, journals, periodicals, manuals, cookbooks, and the like. Honestly, I’ve been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[2489,2326,887,2120,2500],"class_list":["post-29968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02","tag-ahrens","tag-alder","tag-risk","tag-van-soren","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29968"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30019,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29968\/revisions\/30019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}