A Time to Be Brief

Document Type

Editorial

Publication Date

1-9-2016

Keywords

Authorship. Brevity, Inspiration

Abstract

In Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, the Teacher (see Ecc. 1:1, NIV) tells us “there is a time for everything.” This issue of JRCE represents the culmination of 25 years of scholarly contribution to the Christian education community. I had originally imagined writing a wise, wide-ranging editorial to celebrate this milestone. I should have talked to God about those plans first.

Because of my continued struggle with chronic migraine and other types of headaches, I found the deadline for this issue rapidly approaching – then passing – without having completed the necessary groundwork for the type of editorial I had in mind. It was then that God reminded me of the Teacher’s warning in Ecclesiastes; everything we achieve through our own efforts is meaningless. I was in the middle of an Ecclesiastes 3 moment. With my manuscript deadline four weeks behind me, it became obvious that I was living in “a time to be brief” not “a time to be eloquent.”

At first I was very disappointed that I hadn’t been able to even come close to my writing goal for this editorial. Then I realized: a single Spirit-filled word I write can accomplish more than 10,000 I write in isolation from the Divine."

Comments

Editorial appears as Abstract

Journal Title

Journal of Research on Christian Education

Volume

25

Issue

3

First Page

221

Last Page

221

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/10656219.2016.1246899

First Department

Teaching, Learning and Curriculum

Link to Full Text

@ the James White Library

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