It's All About the Rhythm

They've decorated all
the evergreens around
our offices with white
lights and red ribbons.

"Are you settling into the new rhythm of producing a monthly?"
My daughter-in-law asked me the question over Thanksgiving. I want to answer in the affirmative to all  questions about our new format, because I'm so pleased with it. But on a scale from completely yes to completely no, I do believe my answer to her question would fall past the halfway mark toward the "no" side of the scale.
Finally, today I finished editing all the copy for the February issue. It always takes me so much longer than I anticipate to edit a whole issue's copy. Meanwhile the proof for January is waiting to be written, along with incidental other copy on the proof, and MY COLUMN  for the issue. And it goes to the printer Wednesday, the same day Paul Williams will be in the office for our semiregular planning meeting (which I need to get ready for before then).
But the February issue is going to be a good one. It's all about spiritual formation. One quote from one article stood out to me, and I offer it here as a preview:

We want spiritual growth to be straight, predictable, and controllable, yet true growth is more circular than linear. It occurs in cycles where we move forward, then find ourselves moving backward. It's the old "three steps forward, two steps back" mantra. Much like a baby who is learning to walk, we develop spiritually through a process of forward momentum, followed by failure, pain, and stumbling. If we don't get discouraged and bail, but stay with the process, we will find that the backward loops often result in the greatest growth.

Encouraging words to me--I hope to our readers, too!