Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.
1) ESV Journaling Study Bible
I have loved the ESV Study Bible since it first came out about 20 years ago and think it is still the best study Bible available (notes, articles, maps–all accessible and exceptional). I haven’t been a big user of Journaling Bibles previously, mainly because I didn’t love the square, bulky format. If I was going to use a Bible that wasn’t portable, I wanted the notes/resources. Well, here it is–a square, bulky bible with all the notes and resources and the journaling margins. I love the combination because it provides opportunity for notating deeper study and devotional reflection. And, while it isn’t an ideally portable format it is still more compact than the full Study Bible. I would be willing to pack this one for a trip, whereas the traditional study Bible is a permanent desk fixture. For folks who care about aesthetics, there are a bunch of cover designs and styles too, so you can still accessorize with your Scriptures.
2) The Triple
My family and I went to the Nashville Sounds (AAA baseball team) home opener this week. We always have a good time at these games because it’s a lovely, family friendly ballpark that looks out on downtown. When the weather is pleasant, it is absolutely delightful. And sometimes exciting baseball happens too. This game we saw a home run, some stellar defense, and pitchers racking up Ks. But all that pales in comparison to the most exciting play in baseball, which we also witnessed: the triple. If you are a baseball fan you can usually call a home run or a double off the bat, so there’s immediate excitement and then cheering. An inside the park home run is almost always the product of a fluke–bad defense or a bad hop, so while it’s fun it feels like Yakety Sax should be playing the whole time. But the triple is different. The batter has to hit the ball hard enough to get to the wall, but not hard enough to go over it. He has to place the hit such that it splits the defense–that moment the ball shoots past the defender is the moment you know this might be it. The batter has to be a runner, out of the box at a dead sprint and somewhere between first and second base he decides to make the turn for third; you can see when he chooses this and and that’s the other moment you know this might be it. And the whole play is one big building anticipation as the ball rolls, the fielders scramble, the batter sprints, and usually it culminates in a head first slide into third just beating the throw. And then there is released roar of the crowd. The triple is simply awesome.
3) The Sandlot
I know I have shared this before, but some favorites bear repeating, especially at particular times of year. I fell in love with this movie as a 10-year-old little league ball player watching it with my Elliot Park teammates at a season-end party. Our baseball field, was in fact, a sandlot–unkempt and ungroomed by the city of Minneapolis with few enough blades of grass to count. My teammates and I were uniformed in trucker hats and screen printed t-shorts, sponsored by the police department and coached by a sargeant with anger management issues. Some guys had cleats and baseball pants, other showed up in Jeans and sneakers. And we weren’t very good. So The Sandlot was practically a super hero story for us. It captures the essence of summer nostalgia with baseball and friendship and lifeguards and fireworks. It represents the summer and the team every ball-playing boy wishes he had and the rivals we all hated. Even the soundtrack is sublime. It is simply the perfect movie of boyhood. For the last twenty years or so I have watched it at least once a year, and it only gets more delightful when one’s children fall in love with it. I adjure you all, make a tradition of it.
