At Messiah College last week I was asked three different times this question: “How do you manage to get all the teaching, speaking and writing done?” OK, I’ve talked about this before, but I’d like to have a conversation about this again.

Tell us, what works for you?

First, our schedule now fits the pattern of our life now. It has not always been this way. Once a scholar-friend said to me when Lukas was about 12, “If you didn’t spend so much time playing and watching baseball, you’d get more written.” But that was what my life was at that time — I had a son who liked baseball (still does in fact) and a daughter who was involved in school and that meant we lived their lives with them. Then they moved on to college and then to marriage, and now here we are in a new pattern of life: quiet evenings and mostly gentle weekends.

Second, we’ve made some choices, and I’d say some wise choices if you don’t mind my saying so: we protect quiet evenings, we avoid indebtedness which eliminates financial stress, and we say no to things that interfere with the things God has called us to do.

Third, our weekdays have a rhythm: up early (usually by 5:30 am), off to work (either to school or at the desk and when I’m home I stick to the desk from about 7am to 4 pm), we make a salad around 4 or 5pm, and then we walk around the local lake (on weekdays), and then we have dinner together and then we have our quiet evening. For reading and conversation and watching a little TV and our evening prayers.  We do the normal get-togethers with family, friends, students and neighbors, typically on Fridays and Saturdays (and sometimes Thursday evenings).

Finally, on weekends, or during an evening moment when something strikes me, I do most of the blog posts … and then assign the day and time for them to appear.