Over the years, my workflow for taking notes on sermons in church has changed many times. From using a regular Moleskine, to Evernote Moleskines (which were photographed and stored in Evernote), to sketchnoting in Linea Sketch, I never stuck with a system long. My latest obsession has been using Day One as a journal, so it seems like the perfect place to store my sermon notes.

I’m also now taking my notes on my iPhone. I used to take my 9.7" iPad (and then 10.5" iPad Pro) with me. Even with the size reduction on the 2018 models, the 12.9" iPad Pro is way too big to carry into church. Unfortunately, this does mean I lose the convenience of having a Bible app open on one side of the screen and my notes on the other. After one week of this, I knew I had to figure out a way to quickly get the text of the verses into my notes so I didn’t have to keep switching apps.

A quick DuckDuckGo search revealed the Bible translation my church uses, the English Standard Version, has an API that can retrieve full passages of a search query sent to the server. I knew accessing and processing verses from the API would be a great job for Drafts.

I got to work after church yesterday, and created the Insert ESV Text action. It will prompt the user for verses to insert. You can the passage just how you would write it down. For instance, in church yesterday, we studied James 1:1-8. You can type James 1:1-8 into the prompt, and all 8 verses will be inserted into the current draft.

On the verse prompt, there is also a switch to put the returned passage into a markdown blockquote. I have this set as the default because it’s how I prefer my text. However, if this isn’t your preferred default, look at the comments in the script for quick directions on how to change this. It’s as easy as changing the word “true” to “false” in the code.

In order to use this action, you will need a free API token from api.esv.org. The first time you run the action, it will prompt you for your API token. After that, it will automatically retrieve it from Drafts’s Credentials. Once you’ve stored your token, you’re free to start inserting Bible verses from the ESV into Drafts.

I know this is probably a niche script, but it was a lot of fun to create, so I hope it will be useful for someone other than myself. You can get the action here.

Thank you to everyone for the kind words about our news yesterday. I’m overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude.

My child ruined my top songs list. Fortunately the artists were more representative of my listening habits.

The worst parts of parenting small children:

1. Managing sippy cups
2. Finding socks

I love having Christmas decorations until it’s time to take them down.

🍿 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

What a phenomenal movie.

Gonna give Agenda another go for lesson planning in the new year, and looking at ways to automate templates and note entry.

2018 was a great year for music, and after @robbyburns posted his favorite albums of the year, I knew I had to do the same.

I didn’t want to endure the tedium of looking back over my entire Apple Music library to find items with 2018 release dates, so I made a Shortcut to do just that for me. It creates a CSV file which can be opened as a spreadsheet in Numbers so I can select my favorites. It works well unless the album or artist name has a comma in it. I could fix the issue, but it’s easy enough to read in Numbers the spreadsheet, so I left it alone.

Before I get started on the list, in the modern music landscape, artists are often releasing singles instead of full albums. Some of my favorite music of 2018 were singles, so I have included them on the list.

Sleeping At Last - Atlas: Three (02-09-2018)

If you’re not familiar with the Enneagram, it’s a personality typing system with 9 unique types. Sleeping at Last has been releasing a song for every type (he’s finished through Seven). Three is abeautiful song in its own right, but I’m partial as I identify as a 3. The first time I heard it, I almost started crying in my classroom. It will be one of my favorite songs of all time.

Andrew Peterson - Resurrection Letters, Vol. 1 (03-30-2018)

Andrew Peterson will always be one of my favorite artists. My tattoo was inspired by his album “Light for the Lost Boy”, so his music will always be important to me. His latest release, Resurrection Letters, Vol. 1, is actually a prequel to Vol. 2 which was released in 2010 and followed by Resurrection Letters, Prologue which was released in February.

Prologue covers the death of Christ, Vol. 1 His resurrection, and Vol. 2 the new life we have in Christ through the resurrection. Vol. 1 is a fantastic record, and still on repeat in our house.

John Mayer - New Light (05-10-2018)

John Mayer is my all time favorite artist. Anything he puts out will likely make a list for the year. This single is full of pop goodness, and I’ve enjoyed it very much.

Ben Rector - Magic (06-22-2018)

This list is presented chronologically, but top honors for the year have to go to Magic. It’s the best complete work from top to bottom, and Ben Rector’s best work by a mile. If you love pop melodies, nostalgia filled lyrics, and fantastic musicianship, this record is for you.

Andrew Ripp - The Heart EP (08-24-2018)

After taking a few years off from making music, Andrew Ripp’s release from this year is everything I love about his work. While the whole EP is good, God Knows (It Must Be Love) is my favorite.

The Band CAMINO - Daphne Blue (08-03-2018)

Putting this single on here was a bit of a trick. I discovered The Band CAMINO this year, and have fallen in love with their entire catalog. This isn’t my favorite song of theirs, but it’s a great representation of their work, and is a way for me to mention them on this list even though a lot of their music was released in 2017. If you’re an Apple Music subscriber, I’ve made a playlist of all of their songs I regularly place on shuffle.

Ruston Kelly - Dying Star (09-07-2018)

A solid follow-up to his 2016 release, Dying Star mixes the pop-rock melodies of Augustana with americana instrumentation. It’s right up my alley. The whole record is great, but the standout track is “Son of a Highway Daughter.”

NEEDTOBREATHE - Acoustic Live, Vol. 1 (11-16-2018)

A record of some of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands featuring new, acoustic arrangements and guest appearances? Sold.

That’s my list. Hoping for more fantastic music in 2019.

Finally home after a week away. Grateful for an awesome Christmas with family, but so thankful to be home.

🍿 Obligatory “Bird Box” post.

An enjoyable post-apocalyptic film. Not amazing, but glad I watched it.

🏈 Great end to a hard season. Proud of Auburn and Gus for sending out some strong seniors the right way. How many days until football season starts again? War Eagle 🦅

Tom Bihn Claus was good to me this year. Yeah, I might have a problem.

I really like this wallpaper I made with @viticci’s Shortcut. It adds more depth than all black, but still looks super sharp.

My 4-year-old picked this out for me for Christmas, and I love it.

I just had my first experience at an updated Apple Store. I know it’s the Friday before Christmas, but it just felt chaotic. Not somewhere I would want to hang out. Also those beautiful iMac Pro accessories connected to a trashcan Mac Pro. 😂

🎵 Christopher Jackson, Barack Obama & BeBe Winans - One Last Time (44 Remix)

There are not enough words to explain how happy this makes me.