I’ve been in lots of conversations this week. Here are some bits.

1. “I need 300 words,” I said to Nancy as we were on our walk. “There’s one,” she said, gesturing in front of us. “And there’s another.” It’s been a long week.
2. “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” Paul wrote these words to a church that was picking on each other. I’ve been thinking about them every morning this week. Freedom to serve. I can’t shake it. But I don’t understand it well enough to write about it yet, only to point to it. 
3. “We always hear about best practices,” a VP from Habitat for Humanity said at a breakfast on Thursday. “But we often learn from worst practices, from the stories people tell us about what didn’t work, about what wasn’t effective.”
4. “You can download good preaching. You can’t download thoughtful mentoring.” That’s what Kara Powell said at a workshop on her book Growing Young. It’s a research report on churches that are effective with 15-29 year-olds.
5. Tomorrow, February 25, Andrew leaves that age group. Which means Nancy and I have been looking at him for three decades now. Happy Birthday.
6.  I got to spend about 8 hours on Thursday recording podcast conversations for my friend Terry Linhart’s newest book for leaders. The Self-Aware Leader helps leaders look into our blind spots and take practical steps to make changes. It’s a good and hard book.
7. Lent starts on March 1, Ash Wednesday. If you live close to me, I have some copies of Lent For Non-Lent People for $5. Let me know if you’d like one.