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Themes from Driving Toward Morning 2025

Todd R 6 Comments

Dear fellow sojourners,

Now that we’re into December 2025 is almost over and on come the “year in review” sort of posts.  Curious about how to summarize what I wrote in 2025 I loaded my 2025 Word doc into ChatGPT and asked for a 5-bullet-point summary of themes.  I promise I would never write a “normal” post using Generative AI, and I definitely would never use it without letting my readers know.  However, I am curious about the technology and find it has some helpful uses, like summarization.  So, here’s how ChatGPT summarized the blog for 2025:

“Deepening Faith Through Struggle and Growth
Many posts emphasize how God matures believers through trials, weak moments, and long seasons of slow spiritual growth (like the mustard seed and “blade–ear–full grain” parables). Even tiny faith is destined to grow by God’s power, not ours.

Living as Servants of God in Everyday Life
A central idea is that everyone serves something, and Christians are called to consciously serve Christ in ordinary tasks, not only in formal ministry. Daily life—work, family, routine chores—can fully please God.

Obedience, Trust, and the Danger of Self-Reliance
Several posts warn against the “however” we raise against God’s commands, the pride of Babel, or Pharaoh-like hardness. The call is to trust God’s ways over our own reasoning and resist drifting off the path.

Radical Grace, Forgiveness, and Loving Others Well
From Philip welcoming the former persecutor Paul, to teaching on forgiveness and serving the poor, the posts highlight God’s enormous grace and the call for believers to extend that same radical, healing forgiveness to others.

Eternal Perspective: Investing in What Lasts
The posts frequently encourage readers to prioritize heaven over earthly success—storing treasure in heaven, remembering God’s justice, recognizing the temporary nature of human achievements, and preparing for the world to come.”

And now back to me (instead of ChatGPT).

Overall, I think this is a good summary.  What themes resonated with you in 2025?  What would you like to hear more of?  Less of?  What’s most helpful for your walk with God?

Thank you for letting Driving Toward Morning be part of your routine in 2025 and looking forward to God’s blessings in 2026!

Worship: Why I Blog

Todd R 2 Comments

This post was originally a response to a writing prompt: “Why do you blog?”  This is a great question, because I shouldn’t be spending so much time on this blog without good reasons!  But first, a broader question is: “Why write at all?”  After that, choosing to blog is a second issue.

Why I write
First, we are made to be creative.  We are not random accidents with no creator and no purpose.  Before man existed, the Bible describes God Himself as creative, taking a universe that was “without form and void”[1] and making it into something orderly.  Then He put mankind in a garden, which was meant as a model for what we should turn the rest of the world into.  Writing is a way to take formless ideas and turn them into something orderly.  Creativity goes beyond what we typically consider art.  It is using our God-given abilities to make this world more like Paradise.

Second, we are told to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”[2]  Writing is a way to force myself to think through ideas I have or that I’ve come across.  Everyone has in their conscience a variety of voices, or influences, that they follow.  If we don’t take intentional time to consider why we believe what we believe and do what we do, we aren’t testing the spirits.  We’re just doing whatever seems to come naturally, which isn’t the best approach.

Lastly, I write because I enjoy it and want to get better at it.  Saint Augustine wrote: “I endeavor to be one of those who write because they have made some progress, and who, by means of writing, make further progress.”

Why I blog
Many people write things and keep them private, and I also keep some of what I write private, but the only way writing can be useful to others is to write publicly, and blogs are about as public as it gets – I don’t filter who reads these.  It also forces me to put things in a more “final” form than I otherwise might, thinking things through more thoroughly.

Christianity includes “speaking the truth in love.”[3]  If I’ve found something truthful and beneficial to me, it could be beneficial to someone else, and I should share it.  My writing motto is to be compelling and clear, but most of all charitable, meaning written for the benefit of the audience.  Hopefully what I write here is worthwhile to others!

When writing, I keep in mind:

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” – Colossians 3:23-24

[1] Genesis 1:2
[2] 1 John 4:1
[3] Ephesians 4:15

Meet Ebenezer, the Blog’s Mascot

Todd R 5 Comments

Every blog needs a mascot, right?  Well, maybe not every blog, but I decided this one does.  Before I introduce him, a little backstory on where he came from.

Boston is one of my favorite places to visit, and when I was there in October 2022, we got this great picture of a squirrel in Boston Common.  The squirrels there ignore people most of the time, instead of running away like squirrels usually do.  But this one was not afraid of us at all; he walked right up and stared us down.  He stayed like this long enough for us to take a picture and was still around after we walked away.  For squirrels, fear of humans is a learned behavior and, in some environments, they just go about their business, unconcerned.

Ebenezer, at home in Boston Common

He was a great contrast to the “squirrel moments”[1] dogs (and people) have when they are “distracted by random nothingness.”  The Facebook page where I share this blog is called “A place to inject hopeful reminders of eternity into the distraction that is Facebook.”  I’ve used this squirrel as my social media picture before to joke that it was the best way to draw attention, and if people are easily distracted by squirrels, why not use one to distract people toward the blog?

So, this squirrel is now the mascot for Driving Toward Morning!  But he needs a name.  What to call him?

Meet Ebenezer
Many people know the name Ebenezer from Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, but in the Bible an Ebenezer is a stone monument constructed as a tangible and visible reminder of God’s past help for His people.  Ebenezer means “stone of help,” and such monuments were built in Genesis 28:18, 35:14, Joshua 4:9, 1 Samuel 7:12 and elsewhere.  When I write, I’m often trying to create a type of written Ebenezer.

For example, inspired by a devotional about Ephesians 2:4, I wrote a post about the power of the words “but God.”  In it, James Montgomery Boice says: “The words ‘but God’ show what God has done. If you understand those two words – ‘but God’ – they will save your soul. If you recall them daily and live by them, they will transform your life completely.”[2]

So, I’ve decided to name him “Ebenezer, the ‘But God…’ Squirrel,” but you can just call him Ebenezer.  Whenever I see Ebenezer, I hope to be pulled back into awareness of God’s help when I am distracted or frustrated.  I hope to be reminded to store up treasure in heaven as squirrels store food for the winter.  I hope to fear God and not man.  I hope to be encouraged to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), as every squirrel I see reminds me that interrupting the seeming chaos of the world with “but God” can change everything.

Next time, and every time, you see a squirrel, I hope you are reminded of the same.  The world is not random, and God is relevant to your situation, whatever it is.

If you’re ever in Boston and see Ebenezer, say hello to him for me.

[1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SQUIRREL%21%21
[2] From “November 7.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).

Prayer Before Study

Todd R 3 Comments

If you’re a writer, or creative in some other way, how do you prepare to work and dedicate the work to God?  Surely there are as many ways to do this as there are people doing it!  If you don’t already have a routine, the prayer below from St. Thomas Aquinas (originally in Latin) is an excellent place to start.  I use this “Prayer Before Study,” or some other form of it often, especially if I’m struggling to write.

“Ineffable Creator,
You are proclaimed the true font of light and wisdom,
and the primal origin raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of your brightness into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul the twofold darkness into which I was born:
sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips
the goodness of your blessing.

Grant to me keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning,
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.

May you guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.

You who are true God and true Man,
who live and reign, world without end. Amen.”

Happy 4th Blogiversary to Driving Toward Morning!

Todd R 2 Comments

Fellow travelers,

I can’t believe this blog has been going for 4 years as of today!  Thank you to all of my readers and subscribers.  Views have been steady to slightly up, even without counting the 250+ weird hits I got from somewhere in Germany the other day.

After a strong start to the year, life has been getting in the way of blogging recently and my pace of posts is down a bit, but the blog isn’t going anywhere.  I’ve posted 206 times since the last Blogiversary, compared with 229 the previous year.  As much as I’d love to have something on the blog every day it’s just not a realistic goal for me, even though I have almost a year’s worth of already-posted content saved up.

I’ll keep trying to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”[1] and keep writing for as long as I can.  However, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”[2]  Only God knows what the future holds.

Thank you for coming along for the ride and please pray that God would guide me on the right path for year #5.

[1] Hebrews 10:24
[2] James 4:15