Have you heard that saying – “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey?”
That is the perfect way to describe my “Coffee, the Bible, and Paige!” devotional/study podcasts. During each production of a podcast episode, I will do the following:

1. Read the Bible passage under consideration.
2. Copy and paste said passage into my Apple Pages document for that book I am studying.
3. Read through it again, talking to myself – literally I pretend there are two of me, and there is a real dialogue between Paige 1 and Paige 2. This is what I call my “Thinking with my mouth open.”  If any questions pop up in this self-dialogue I add that question after the verse I am questioning. If by the smallest chance I have an original thought or application, I will also add that comment/thought as well.
4. I then pull-up a commentary and a Greek dictionary – both trusted resources I have come to rely on. I map out the important words with the Greek dictionary and see if there are any nuances that the English word itself does not bring out. I write that following the verse it applies to. I read the commentary for anything the commentary adds to my self-dialogue, again, writing those thoughts following the appropriate verses.
5. After all of this, I once again read the passage, thinking about the additional information, tightening up grammar, and whatever corrections are necessary to make it all flow.
6. I set up to record the video podcast, basically discussing with myself the passage with the thoughts I have added from my brain, the commentary, and the Greek Dictionary.
7. I record myself basically reading the transcript I have just prepared.
8. I then listen to it in its entirety, and if I am satisfied that I am not being heretical, I will then proceed to editing the video for my YouTube channel.
9. I will strip the audio for the Spotify and the iTunes Podcast platforms.
10. Once again, I will listen to it to make sure nothing sketchy is happening… this time I am looking for production value – is the audio clear, is the video blocked correctly etc.
11. If, for some reason, I think it’s wrong, or if I get new ideas while I am recording my transcript, I will re-record it all putting in the new stuff, correcting the bad stuff… i.e. are there too many “umms” “uhhhhh” etc, or too many flat out wrong things I might have said?

By the time I post these podcast episodes, I have listened to that passage of scripture at LEAST six times. I am fulfilling that scripture in Psalm 1 where the writer says:

1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

This process absorbs approximately four hours of my time per episode. And this process is, in reality, verse two of Psalm 1 in action. I am meditating literally day and night, sometimes. Some days, I will get up at 5 am and work through to around 9 am to produce the podcast. Sometimes I will put in a couple of hours before going to bed and then a couple of hours in the morning finishing it up. My goal is three episodes per week.

This is not a schedule I could have maintained prior to being retired by Covid and my heart condition. But once I retired from classroom teaching, I pushed my private lessons to afternoon slots with a few exceptions. So now I can get up early, finish my podcast and then play with my dog, Maddy – who will not be ignored – and get in a nap before teaching my afternoon lessons.

Please believe this – my podcasts are not about me trying to convince you of my brilliance as a Bible teacher…. because I am not that. What I am is a man in the last chunk of his life, who has worked hard all his life, and who now has time. How can I best spend that time? Doing what I have desired to do all these years – to spend quality time reading God’s mail to me… which is what the Bible is … to me.

I wake up every morning and my first thought as I get my cup of coffee is “Lord – what do you have for me today?” I open up the Bible and repeat those 11 steps I listed above. And God never disappoints. Never.

If you get encouragement out of any of what I do… awesome. But please know – this is all about me. You are welcome to come along for the ride, but my focus will always be “Lord – what do You want to tell ME?”

I can already hear the question – “If the audience of many is not the goal, why put any of this out there. Can’t you do this without putting it out into the Internet?” Yup. I sure could. But I have discovered that I need to be accountable in order to succeed in any endeavor. Putting out a podcast holds me accountable.

Accountable to who? Another great question – you ask all the right questions! I have a couple of pastors who check in on me from time to time – at my request. I have a few relatives who listen and/or watch my podcasts who give me feedback. Beyond that, I don’t have a huge audience – and I get it – the Bible ism’t a “WOW!” type thing like the sensational topics some podcasts focus on  …

“Sasquatch warns Wyoming campers to Leave!”

I can’t compete with Sasquatch. But that’s just it. I am NOT competing with anyone or anything.

The finished podcast episode – aka the “Destination”  – is not the important part. The four hour “Journey” is where the gold is.
Does all that make sense? I hope so. It makes sense to me… I’m cool with that. I’m kinda digging this “retirement” thing!

 

In His Grip,

Paige