Starting Over and Looking Ahead

It’s hard to believe, but it has been two months since my last post. On top of that, I’ve written only one post in the past three months. The reason is fairly simple: I moved. My last few posts were somewhat raw and personal because the move marked a major “turning the corner” in my life, with the previous 15 years being a rather trying time for me, in both my personal and professional lives. After having struggled for so long just to keep a certain amount of equilibrium while waiting for a door to finally open, once that door opened, there was pretty much just a mental and physical collapse. No, “collapse” isn’t the right word—I’m not sure what is the right word. It was just a time where a lot of pent-up frustration was released.

Now, I didn’t anticipate not writing anything for two months, but major moves tend to take up your time. The entirety of July and the early was spent renovating the “fixer-upper” house I bought: repainting every room, new laminate flooring, new HVAC system, new hot water heater, and numerous other things. Even to this day, I’m still awaiting the installation of a new oven. On top of that, my old car finally started to wear down, so there was a purchase of a new car. I was literally working on the house for 10-12 hours a day.

Then in early August I started a new job as a high school English teacher at a public charter school. Even though I have taught high school for 16 years (and 7 years at the college level), a new school with a new curriculum and new procedures will always be an adjustment. It was also somewhat of a shock to me to find out that I am the second oldest faculty member at the school. I have ten years on two of the other new English teachers with their ages combined! I think pretty much for this first semester I’ll simply be keeping one step ahead of the students when it comes to teaching the curriculum. Like I said, it’s an adjustment…and it takes up a lot of one’s time.

Nevertheless, I like the faculty and I’m happy that my son is going to the elementary school on the same campus. Still, it is a bit odd to realize that this is the first time in my entire professional teaching career (unless you count my two years as a full-time substitute teacher and my year in the Peace Corps) that I am not either teaching at a Christian school or teaching something related to Biblical Studies. Even for the last seven years, when I was teaching at the University of North Alabama, I was still teaching Religious Studies courses. Now, though, I find myself an English teacher in a public school—and I’m okay with that. (Technically, though, I just realized, since I’m still teaching one online course per semester at UNA, I’m still teaching Biblical Studies).

All that said, I’m slowly getting settled in this new phase of my life. I still plan to write blog posts, although I don’t think I’ll be writing as much as I used to do. Still, I’m hoping I can crank out at least one per week. In addition, I still am anticipating my Blue-Collar Bible Scholar: Reader’s Guide to the New Testament to come out in 2023. Rest assured, when they come out, I’ll promote them up the wazoo! They are awesome. If you just want to learn to read the New Testament better, for the sole purpose of understanding each New Testament book, my books will be well worth your while…and you’ll want to buy multiple copies for family and friends as gifts for birthdays, holidays, and any other occasions you can think of.

In the meantime, though, I plan to soon write another book analysis of a book by Stephen De Young, entitled The Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century. I’m reading it now and think it will be well worth my time to write about it, and well worth your time to read about it.

Long story short, I’m still here. There have just been some major changes in my life and it has taken time for things to settle down.