Run with the Footmen
May 21, 2021 | Roger Shipman

“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?” ­– (Jeremiah 12:5) Once burned, twice shy, say the pundits. A tiny scar averts a sizable blister. The handling of a trifle schools a person in mastery over the significant. Crises—accidents,...
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The First Commandment
Oct 7, 2019 | Roger Shipman

They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, “You are our gods.” ­– Isaiah 42:17 The First Commandment is, of course, “Have no other gods before Me.” Certainly not Communication. To reify our writing, to make of it a genie that draws magic...
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On Dragons
Sep 30, 2019 | Roger Shipman

When I wrote an article recommending a movie about dragons, a fellow Christian not only refused to watch the movie, but also to read the article, clearly thinking, “Dragons come from the Devil.” Well, yes, the Devil is the original serpent, the same that tempted Eve to sin, and she Adam. Is it not...
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A Translation Project
Sep 23, 2019 | Roger Shipman

“I woke up this morning with an odd phrase in my head: “Tribes have many ways to find the way to the roof.” There was no context, no dream to accompany it, but I realized (extrapolating from my own experience) that it should be: “The people need to know there is only one way to heaven.” Anyone has...
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Give Your Brush a Bath
Sep 16, 2019 | Roger Shipman

This morning I realized that the odor I smelled each morning in the bathroom was not coming from me after all but from my hairbrush. So I gave it a bath. Then I realized that blogging is like that. All of us communicate every day, but those of us who write daily or weekly need to brush up. We use...
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Don’t Worry About Being Obvious!
Sep 9, 2019 | Roger Shipman

Recently I returned from a ten-day mission to South America to sail with a ship that visits most ports in the world every five years, selling books. Not a vacation. On the ship, communication is a very big deal. They don’t have time for excuses, there’s work to do. Arrangements have to be made...
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Exploring Words
Sep 2, 2019 | Roger Shipman

There are two meanings for “word.” One is a single sentence particle. The other is bigger, more expressive. “I’d like to have a word with you,” says your wife. She doesn’t mean that she wants to take a sentence fragment and eat it along with you, as if for lunch. She’s got something to say, and...
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Not a summary but a summation
Aug 26, 2019 | Roger Shipman

While instructing a client on how to submit her book to Amazon to begin sales, I asked her to write a summary of the book. I realized afterward that I should have asked for a summation. From a popular online dictionary: Summary: a comprehensive and usually brief abstract, recapitulation, or...
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Overcoming Daily
Aug 19, 2019 | Roger Shipman

“The trouble with daily life,” someone once said, “it’s that it’s so daily.” And Daily is a giant. Writing is like that. It can be a day at the beach, sunny and warm; or a walk in the park, light and breezy; or a safari, peering through thick jungles hoping the wildlife doesn’t eat you; a mountain...
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