I would like to start today's episode by saying that I've missed you.

I know that from where you said it feels like we just did this yesterday, like we do

every day.

Yeah, Bill, sometimes I travel.

I want to take all this stuff with me, so I work ahead a little bit, and that's been

the case here for about the last week and a half.

My kids went to a free Lutheran National Youth Conference in Colorado, and it was held

at a place where I went to a couple of leadership conferences when I was a kid, so that was pretty

cool.

I think they had fun up there.

My wife and I went and did a little pre-anniversary, anniversary trip and hung out in the mountains

and fished and enjoyed each other's company.

I am reminded that she's still absolutely my favorite person I've ever met to hang out

with.

And in some of the in-between times, I sat around and thought about what you and I are

working on here and how excited I was to get back to it, and I am, by the way, I don't take

this for granted.

I look forward to sitting down on the microphone and doing this every day, because the fact

that you care about this stuff and I care about this stuff, and we don't even all have to

think exactly the same things about it, and we don't have to put on airs and act like

we know all the things are some kind of Bible geniuses, but we can just think about it together.

That is such a gift.

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