It’s Wednesday, random thoughts time.

1. On Tuesday I learned the linguistic rule that lead to English having both “its” and “it’s.” This made me happy, I am a nerd.
2. “For All Mankind” is a very good show on AppleTV+. Well worth the watch.
3. Pastors learn to have some detachment when we’re dealing with grief. It’s a defense mechanism, because without it we’d get overwhelmed. Healthy pastors find ways to grieve in smaller circles, burnt out pastors internalize.
4. My Lenten discipline for 2021, which is to spend an hour creating after my morning devotions, has been helpful to me. The world is still a train wreck, but for that hour I feel more “me” than I have for a year. And that “me” is a lot better at paying attention to God’s nudges.
5. If I hadn’t joined a D&D game at the beginning of pandemic-land I’d probably have forgotten how to have healthy social interaction by this point of the journey.
6. Last Sunday, right before I was about to lead a prayer of thanksgiving, I noticed I got a text from my mom. I caught the notification in time to see that my cousin had died in his sleep. He’d battled ALS for four years. See point three to understand how I managed to get to the end of the service—but this hit me hard.
7. I miss hugs.
8. I took off my mask to preach last Sunday, that felt weird.
9. Having a full day where I didn’t feel random waves of depression would be a nice change of pace.
10. The photo of the night sky from the Perseverance rover made me tear up in awe. Stunning.
11. Sometimes the only prayer that makes sense to utter is, “Lord, have mercy” over and over and over.