Just popping in here for little bit of silliness on this special day that everybody mispronounces. 😊 Then it’s back to the dissertation grind and off to teaching a fun class during our residency week here in Myerstown, Pee-yay.

I did a quick search of the top love songs of all time, and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” is routinely at the top of the list—or at least in the top five. So here it is for your listening pleasure. (My, oh my, what that lady could do with a syllable!)

And (just because I’m enchanted with her stuff) here’s an Enya love song, too. But best of all—speaking of love—below is a brief clip of our little Bubby. SamJam has gotten his first phone. I hope he calls me later today to wish me a Happy Valentino’s Day. 😊

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P.S., Why is my second dissertation taking so long? Several reasons:

First, my literature review involves surveying 2,000 years of commentary and theological reflection. That takes a while to process, systematize, and chart.

Second, my work so far contains eight languages besides English (Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Latin, Italian, French, and German), all of which I have to translate and verify for accuracy.

Third, my methodology involves a full biblical theology approach (i.e., a Genesis-to-Revelation analysis) rather than a simple exegesis of a few relevant texts. That’s a lot of ground to cover.

Fourth, my study would not be complete without a deep dive into the relevant intertestamental literature. That corpus is likewise vast and sometimes complicated.

Fifth, I am dual-employed (happily so) as a pastor and as a professor. Multiple hats on one head can be a balancing act sometimes.

Sixth, my mother-in-law lives with us, and she is in the seventh and final stage of Alzheimer’s. That can be quite challenging to handle, and it’s getting harder by the day.

Seventh, I spend as much time as I possibly can with my little SamJam. As readers of TNL already know, I’m totally smitten with him! ❤️

So, yeah, this is taking longer than I wanted, but I love my topic, and I really like how it’s turning out so far. More on that later. Probably much later. Haha! 🙂