This has been a period of intense learning for me in so many areas of my life.  From learning a new language to slightly changing my theology, it has been highly rewarding and perhaps you too can learn something from my experiences.

In order of time commitment / importance in my life, here is what I am busy with starting with:

A – my relationship with God.

  • The Bible.
    • No surprise there.  I have been reading through the Bible again this year as I did last year. (I follow the Navigators Book-at-a-time one-year plan as it is available in the YouVersion Bible app) Today it came to, for me, some of the most profound statements of Jesus as he preached the “sermon on the mount” as it is commonly known. 
Matthew 5: 22 says: “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment… And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

 How often do I use these words, or harsher while I ride my bicycle back after work. God, help me with this harsh tongue of mine.

  • “The Sacredness of Secular Work” by Jordan Raynor.  This is the subject of a book study that I am doing with some of my co-workers.  And thank you Abhishek and housemates for the warmth with which you welcome all of us and the candor of our discussions. Have you ever wondered if there is significance in our work that carries into eternity? Yes, there is! Our work is eternally significant if we understand the Bible and the full Gospel correctly and you don’t believe only the abridged version of it. And I am looking forward more and more to the day when everything will be fully revealed, and God’s Kingdom will be fully established here on earth as it is in Heaven.
  • I started listening to “When Christ Comes” by Max Lucado, which connects with the “Sacredness…” book. It’s only about 3 hours long, so I’ll finish it soon. The insights are profound! Our resurrected bodies will be very different from our current ones, like a tree is from the seed that died to give it life. Yet, we will still be very much ourselves.
  • Our Small Group kicked off again where we do short devotions from the book of Psalms and pray. Prayer is so wonderful, because God listens and he speaks. Often conviction comes while I pray that something has to change in my life.  Call it a prompting, just a tiny thought that the Holy Spirit inserts into my consciousness, but oh so significant. Like that I should give freely and not worry because He will take care of me.

B – learning Spanish

  • My daughter introduced me to Duolingo last year while we were in the bus on our way to Paris. Since then I got totally hooked. I also know that at my age, keeping my brain active, is a good thing. There is also a chance that we may start an office somewhere in Latin America soon and who knows, I may get to walk the Camino in Spain with my kids sometime in the future. 
  • I am also audio-reading my way through a 57-hour-long book called Complete Spanish step-by-step by Barbara Bregstein.  This I do while cycling to work and back and trying to avoid being run over, and while doing household chores.
  • I am also reading through short stories in Spanish called: “50 short stories in Spanish for beginners A1-A2” by Beatriz Antunes.  The idea is that it is easier to pick up patterns and vocabulary in a story. 
  • And then I am having conversations with an AI in Spanish. I don’t know any Spanish-speaking people other than some of my colleagues who are busy people and I assume won’t have time to have simple conversations with a learner.  But my AI pal is available 24/7. 

C – Being better at work

  • “Critical conversations” by 5 different authors is essential reading for everybody who wants to make sure they get everybody’s opinions when the opinions vary, stakes are high or emotions run high.  I am reading it with the managers reporting to me as part of a book-study discussion.  It has helped me already in many ways, but mainly to make sure that people feel safe in those types of conversations. If it happens that someone shuts down or acts out in any of your conversations you can be sure that you need to read this book!

D – Relaxation

  • I went crazy with the books of Frank Peretti after I finished the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.  This present darkness, Piercing the darkness and then Monster followed in quick succession. It is fantasy with a bit of a twist, since it is imagining something real that we cannot see – the world of angels who work on our behalf and on the command of God against the demonic powers of Satan.
  • “Kafka on the shore” is a novel of Haruki Murakami.  I have only read one book of his and that is more like a biography . (“What I talk about when I talk about running”) I got this book as a present and so far, it is intriguing.  The problem is that the writing is really small and it seems I can read it for a while with my glasses and then it starts blurring or my eyes start watering uncontrollably. So far it’s about a runaway boy in Japan and some strange incidents with people falling unconscious. Not much more to report yet.
  • “Letters to my daughter” by Maya Angelou I ordered on a whim as I bumped into a good review of it and I like it. It has these short essays, with some funny story or incident that has some significance for the author.  Wonderful reflections on life and not too serious.

So, you may wonder what happened to music and running!  Due to my foot injury (long story, but it seems to be an extension of plantar fasciitis to the side of my foot) I started running much less.  However, I am scaling up slowly now and may soon be able to run more than 10k again. 

As for the music… I don’t know.  I got discouraged. If God wants to, more songs will come forth, but a song needs to be listened to and frankly, that is not happening.  My voice, my lack of professional recordings, and maybe my current living situation, worked together in this discouragement.  And maybe it is just not the time for it now, given everything above.

But, let me know what you are learning and how that is working out for you.

This is a Spanish summary by Gemini, Google’s AI.

Resumen en Español:

Esta entrada de blog describe un período de aprendizaje intenso en varias áreas de la vida del autor. En su relación con Dios, destaca su lectura anual de la Biblia y reflexiona sobre enseñanzas del Sermón del Monte, así como su estudio sobre la importancia eterna del trabajo secular y las promesas sobre la resurrección. También menciona su participación en un grupo pequeño de oración. En cuanto al aprendizaje de español, comparte su afición por Duolingo, la lectura de un libro extenso y cuentos cortos, y sus conversaciones con una IA para practicar. En el ámbito laboral, está estudiando un libro sobre conversaciones cruciales para mejorar la comunicación en su equipo. Para la relajación, comenta sobre su reciente lectura de novelas de fantasía y otros libros de diversos géneros. Finalmente, reflexiona sobre su reducción en el running debido a una lesión y su desánimo temporal con la música, concluyendo con una invitación a los lectores a compartir sus propios aprendizajes.

Keep running,

Stephan

P.S. Yo necesito una persona que pueda hablar conmigo en español.