Funny story. 

One day last week, I wrote a quick study on 1 Thessalonians and grieving. (If you come to a men’s breakfast in Glen Ellyn (IL) on February 8, you’ll probably hear it.)

A couple days before, Nancy and I were at a thrift shop. It’s what we do for fun. It’s the ultimate cheap date. 

I seldom look at books anymore, since I need to read some of the many I’ve accumulated. But this time, at this store, I looked at the shelf. Simply looked at it.  

Immediately I recognized a black and green striped binding. It’s the distinctive cover of the Word Biblical Commentary series, one of my favorite series of commentaries on Bible books. They aren’t the kind that I expect most people to read. They are the kind that I expect people to expect people like me to read. And they are never on the shelves in thrift shops. 

Eventually I found 11 of the volumes (out of fifty or so.) They were marked $3.95 each. But it was half-price day at the thrift shop. So, for $22 of my coffee money, I expanded my collection. 

One of them was the Commentary on 1&2 Thessalonians, as I discovered when I decided to study the text I wrote about yesterday.

The timing was perfect: the teaching I’m preparing for a men’s breakfast in February, the nudge to study that text for the teaching, the sudden presence of the volume I needed. 

Thank you to those of you who support this work. And thanks for listening to me talk about nudges.