Weeknote for 2/9/2025

Health

😐

I’m dealing with the remnants of my illness. My fever was gone Monday, but I still worked from home to spare my coworkers my coughing and any leftover germs. I’m probably not very contagious at this point, but I don’t think I’ll feel quite well until my congestion is gone. I’ve also been very tired, maybe from a lack of my customary coffee. When I wasn’t obsessing over the news, I spent a lot of my evenings napping.

People

😌

Friday I flew down to Texas for Jason’s memorial service. I stayed with my parents, and the next morning we drove over to Tyler, like we did for his wedding. The service was a fitting tribute to his life put together by people who clearly knew and loved him. The photo video spoke of a life filled with family. The songs we sang and the sermon spoke of the fulfillment of our longings and expectations in heaven. With my recent attention to the new creation theme in the New Testament, I found the message gratifying. After the service we stayed for lunch. I was glad for the chance to connect with each of Jason’s family that I knew and also to reconnect with Dan, one of our college friends who I hadn’t seen since graduation. Although piecing together the meaning of Jason’s absence will continue for everyone who was close to him, the day reminded me of the significance of gathering to remember and to say goodbye till we meet him again.

Spirituality

😐

In my discipleship study I finished a brief survey of humanity’s catalog of virtues. I was relieved I could push myself to this little milestone when I spent most of the week journaling about the news. My first major goal in the study is to get a sense of the aims of discipleship, mainly around character, and I wanted to put the New Testament’s teaching in the context of other systematic thought people have done on the issue. This article by Scott Jeffrey was a helpful source along similar lines. Now I’m listening to The Moral Vision of the New Testament by Richard Hays, which I’ll use to guide me through the New Testament’s picture of character.

Productivity

😌

I ranked my current priorities on my productivity system to arrive at a starting point for this round of updates. It wasn’t much progress, but it was real, and it felt like a small victory over the troubles of the week. The priority I’ll start with is simplifying my day-task registration. It’s an improvement I can make fairly easily that will eliminate a daily irritation in using my system. So that’s my aim for this week.