Holy Cow! I never get sick, but when I do, I make up for all of the times it’s skipped me! For the last ten days I’ve been wiped out, but since Monday I’ve been on the couch sweating, aching, complaining (though not loud because I’ve lost my voice), and hoping for compassion! Mrs. Peterson tries hard, but neither she nor I have been blessed with extra compassion so therefore our house is not a place where the sick are doted over.

Anyhow, lately I’ve been reading a lot of history, particularly the history of Ronald Reagan.

A couple of weeks ago I concluded, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan penned by his official biographer, Edmund Morris. Really interesting side note here, apparently Reagan, as a young lifeguard, saved Morris from drowning (one of 77 saves during his career as a lifeguard). The man Reagan saved as a teenager would later become his biographer as an adult.

Right now I’m about 500 pages into Reagan’s autobiography, An American Life.

Regardless of what you may think about his politics, he was a consequential leader and continues to be an enigma to even those closest to him (e.g. his biographer). Was he the sleepy old man that many labeled him as or was he really so far ahead of everyone else in the room that they bored him. There certainly is no shortage of opinions on both sides of this matter.

So what else is going on in the Peterson house?

• May 2 is coming quick! It won’t be long before daughter #6 is among us!

• It’s a little tense in our house right now. Sherri and I are making a paradigm shift in terms of how we parent. Much of this is based on our interactions with this book. I’m sure that blog posts will flow from this book.

• Over the last few years I have had 3 close friendships that have changed. Two were because of moves. As much as I hate it, geographical space does cause relational space. The third relationship changed because my friend and I arrived at a relational impasse. Neither one of us were willing to compromise our principles. This makes me sad.

• I just finished preaching through the Song of Solomon. I’ve always wanted to do this. This was the right time. If you want to hear the lessons you can click here. I prayed more, studied harder, and preached longer for this series of sermons than perhaps any I have ever preached before.

• This Sunday after church, Sherri, Alex (C180’s Family Pastor) and I are headed out to Atlanta for this conference. Our family spent one year of our life here at Mountain Lake Church in a church planting internship. During that time we made great memories, got a lot of things right in our lives, and made lasting friendships, so it’s always like going home when we swing in.

So that’s a little bit of what’s been going on in the life of the Petersons.