I’ve been thinking this week about Bobby. I don’t know Bobby. I don’t even know if that’s his real name. But I (and over 2 million other people) have gotten to know Bobby through the singer Ben Folds and Chatroulette.

I’ve been thinking about fitting in. It’s an idea with which most of us can identify. We are people desperate to 'fit in', to belong. We go to great lengths (through the stuff we watch, the clothes we buy, and the things we do) in order to fit in.

I’ve been thinking about the Winter Olympics. At the risk of alienating those of you who don’t follow sports I make back-to back sports-related posts. Although, in my defense, the Olympics are games not sports. There also is anecdotal evidence that the Olympics have wider appeal than traditional sports. In fact, that appeal got me thinking: What is it that makes the Olympics compelling?

I, like most other US Americans not living in New Orleans or Indianapolis, have been thinking today more about the commercials from last night’s Super Bowl than the football.

I’ve been thinking this morning about Martin Luther King, Jr. Actually I’ve been thinking about him since last week when my kindergartener son whispered to me after school, "We learned about Martin Luther King."

With the start of another year, I’ve been thinking about resolutions.

I’ve been thinking about books. Actually, I think about books a lot. That’s part of what pastors are supposed to do, right? Someone visits a pastor with a problem, shares heartfelt vulnerability, and gets handed a book (off a shelf filled with books) and sent on their merry way. Well. . . hopefully that’s not how it works, but sometimes we bibliophilic pastors give that impression.

I’ve been thinking about thanks. With two days left before Thanksgiving, I figure it’s about time I give it some thought.

I’ve been thinking about success. I think about it a lot actually. It’s a function of our culture and our time—particularly for us who are (to use David Brooks’s phrase) ‘meritocrats’—always striving after accomplishment as the source of our identity. I want to be a successful pastor, husband, and father. I want to be successful as a cultural consumer (i.e. watch the right TV, listen to the right bands) and as a board game player. Really I want to be successful everywhere and always.

Since I began using it about six months ago, I have developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with Google Reader. It’s become a great way for me to organize news and follow blogs. That’s the part I love.  But if I don’t stay on top of Google Reader, newsfeeds pile up and I begin to drown in unread information that (I fear) may be really important. What if I miss a crucial story?

With my son (and oldest child) five weeks into his first year of public education, I have been thinking about school. I’ve been listening to other anxious parents who, like us, have sent their firstborn off to school. And I’ve been remembering my own scholastic career—the good, the bad, and the ugly (which peaked around middle school for me).

Lately I’ve been thinking about liturgy. I know, I know—that sounds incredibly boring. The word ‘liturgy’ causes most of us to think of church services, and specifically the dry (and often alienating) routines of a particular denominational tradition. Liturgy need not be a dirty word. Etymologically, liturgy means ‘the work of the people.’ Liturgy suggests that Christianity is not just about a set of doctrinal beliefs. It is a form of shared life. That is to say, Christianity is as much what a community of people do as it is what they believe.