With all of the pressures of preparing for Christmas Day—the coming and going, the parties and presents—the Sunday following Christmas is welcome indeed.
It's become a cliche in pastor circles. How hard the holidays are.
Sometimes cliches can make the reality rather than represent it, but in
this case, I do think the holidays are particularly challenging for most
pastors.
Karl Marlantes's new book is not fiction, but it develops the idea of his novel Matterhorn: that war provides a
sense of transcendence that can be found nowhere else.