Thursday Th(ink)s - November 6, 2025

Because Thursday is the perfect day for coffee, ink, and conversations that actually matter.

Thursday is that spacious stretch in the week—and in life—where we slow down, look back with mercy, and look ahead with grace. These are the Thursday years: fewer deadlines, deeper reflections, and a bit more holy curiosity.

There are so many things in life you simply must “do it yourself if you want it done right.” Like loading the dishwasher. Or trimming your own bangs. Or dying.

Yes, this is me. Ever the over-confident bang-cutter, even at age 26.

The Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards, who had a deep fondness for lists long before bullet journaling was fashionable, once wrote, “Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.” It’s one of seventy resolutions he penned before the age of twenty—each a solemn attempt to live with eternity in view. Clearly, Edwards was the class ‘nerd’, not the ‘most popular boy’, but I rather admire that kind of sober practicality. Not in a morbid way, but in a matter-of-fact, list-making way.

I love order, although you’d never know it if you looked at my closet. The brain thrives on order, on lists—even when we don’t recognize it. Think about it: the list that starts with Monday naturally moves to Tuesday, and on it goes until Sunday. January gives way to February, and before we know it, we’re at December. Midnight turns into morning, and another day begins its tidy march toward 11:59 p.m.

Our whole lives are structured by these invisible mega-lists that quietly run the universe. And unlike my grocery list, we don’t get a say in the sequence. Time keeps ticking, item by item, without our input—thankyouverymuch.

God, of course, lives outside of all that. He’s not flipping calendar pages or watching the clock. Yet He has gifted us this present day—our single, sacred item on the list of time.

Maybe Edwards knew what takes the rest of us a lifetime to learn: the end of the list isn’t the end at all—it’s simply the moment when grace takes over the scheduling.

Big Brains:  “There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” Sophia Loren

Old Souls: “The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” Robert Frost

The Ancient of Days:  Go to the ant, O sluggard;  consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief,  officer, or ruler, She prepares her bread in summer  and gathers her food in harvest. Proverbs 6:6-11

Norma Jean: Even in a world that runs on lists,

grace refuses to be scheduled.

Thursday Chat: There are plenty of things you can hire out—taxes, lawn care, even someone to walk your dog. But some things are strictly DIY. Loading the dishwasher, for one. Dying, for another. No one else can do it for you. There’s no substitute service, no “DeathDash” delivery option. It’s the final solo project—and oddly enough, the most faithful thing we’ll ever do on our own.