I am very excited about this series. Part of that is because I think it is interesting and invites people into a deeper understanding of the gospel. But there is another part that is a bit more personal. This series is actually seven years in the making. It is a project that followed a year-long reading plan that I did in 2016, but the writing portion of it got put on hold until now. The purpose of this post is to share how this project originated, developed, and to explain what you can expect from the series.

Let me take you back to 2016.

A Brief History

At the time, I was a newly married 25 year old who had recently graduated with a degree in Biblical Studies. I was planning to have a career in ministry, and I wanted to continue developing my understanding of God, a heart for people, and a rhythm of ministry. I figured a good place to hit all three objectives was to immerse myself in the gospels of Jesus. So, I decided my reading plan for 2016 was to repeatedly read the gospels and then listen to the rest of the New Testament each month. The plan had a blend of creativity and intentional focus, and I entered the year with high expectations.

I have always had a passion for teaching, and I developed a desire and passion for writing my senior year of high school, so I decided to start a blog and chronicle the experience of my reading plan throughout the year. My goal for the blog was to write one post each week, resulting in an archive that chronicled the incremental growth of such an immersive plan.

About halfway through the year, I realized the focus of my reading had shifted from my threefold goal of God, people, and ministry to finding a topic to write about for that week. I felt a conviction from the Holy Spirit to abandon the writing project and just focus on reading. While it was sad to let go of a project I really wanted to finish, doing so certainly lifted a burden off my mind. I was able to focus on the text; I was able to grow. To this day, A Year Through the Gospels is one of my favorite reading plans that I have ever done.

Back to the Present

Fast forward to today, 2023. After a seven year hiatus, I am re-entering the blogosphere, and my first project is resurrecting (pun obviously intended) and completing my long lost series. But returning to an old series has its own set of challenges. First, I left the series half-done, so new content needs to be written. Over the past seven years, however, I have changed – my understanding of the text has grown; my writing has changed; my reason for writing has changed. So, the content of this series is not uniformly the same throughout. Instead of re-writing my old content to match my current style, I have decided to leave those posts in their original form with the exception of a few minor edits for readability. Likewise, I am not adapting my new content to the writing style of my 25 year old self. This means some of my later posts in the series might read differently from the earlier ones, and that is okay. I mostly just want to prepare the reader for these nuances.

What You Can Expect From This Series

My intention for this series is fairly simple: it is to communicate the beauty and complexity of the gospel. I want to share what God’s shared with me so that you see, feel, understand, and experience the gospel in a deeper way. The posts are written in a variety of writing styles – some are knee-jerk reflections, some are overviews, some are deep dives. It is my goal that through this blend of writing you will be drawn into the reality of Jesus – His life, His purpose, His gospel.

I hope your interest is piqued, and I hope you’ll engage with this series. I’ll leave you with this: Jesus has to be the most interesting person in history. I hope you’ll dedicate your life to understanding why.