{"id":2351,"date":"2011-11-23T13:06:50","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T19:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:35:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:35:49","slug":"wedged-between-glenn-beck-and-the-christmas-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2011\/11\/23\/wedged-between-glenn-beck-and-the-christmas-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Wedged Between Glenn Beck and The Christmas Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

First, I want to say thanks to those who have purchased my new (and first) e-book, <\/a>Discovering Advent: How to Experience the Power of Waiting on God at Christmastime<\/a>.<\/em> And for those who would like to buy the book but do not own an e-reader, I apologize for not having a way to distribute the book in another form. My guess is that by next year, there will be more options. I\u2019m just getting started in the e-book world.<\/p>\n

A few minutes ago, I surfed over to Amazon to see how Discovering Advent<\/a><\/em> is doing. The book is ranked #8 among the Kindle store\u2019s \u201cChristmas\u201d books, and #18 in Amazon\u2019s overall listing of \u201cChristmas\u201d books. That is encouraging to me, though I don\u2019t really know what this means in raw numbers. Maybe my Mom just bought a couple dozen copies!<\/p>\n

Anyway, checking out the rankings for Amazon\u2019s \u201cChristmas\u201d books, I learned that I have a curious position at the moment. I\u2019m wedged in between Glenn Beck\u2019s The Christmas Sweater<\/em> (#17) and Melody Carlson\u2019s The Christmas Dog<\/em>. That struck me as a bit ironic. It\u2019s not everyday that I find myself in the company of Glenn Beck and The Christmas Dog.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is not the first time I\u2019ve run into Glenn Back in unexpected places, however. This summer, my family and I had the privilege of touring Israel. During our day in Jerusalem, we visited the Temple Mount, including the well-preserved Southern Steps. These are the steps that Jews would ascend on their way to the Temple. They are most certainly a place where Jesus walked, and perhaps a place where he conversed with his followers and with some of the Jewish officials.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As I made my way along a narrow pathway to the steps, I had to skirt around a small group of people who were filming something. I practically ran into the man being filmed. When I turned to look at him from a couple of feet away, I looked straight into the face of Glenn Beck, the controversial radio talk show host. (I am not a regular listener to Beck\u2019s show, but I have seen his face in various publications, including the cover of Time Magazine<\/em>.) It seemed strangely ironic that, as I was about to sit on the steps where Jesus once sat, I almost tripped over Glenn Beck.<\/p>\n

On the way out, I took a photo of the film crew, which had moved to a place with more room. My photography greatly displeased one of Beck\u2019s handlers, who approached me with a menacing look, so I hurried away.<\/p>\n

So, twice in a year I have found myself right next to Glenn Beck, sort of. On the Southern Steps of the Temple Mount, I did not see any sign of the Christmas dog, however.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, I want to say thanks to those who have purchased my new (and first) e-book, Discovering Advent: How to Experience the Power of Waiting on God at Christmastime. And for those who would like to buy the book but do not own an e-reader, I apologize for not having a way to distribute the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9565,8681,16535],"tags":[16624,16649,16648,16650],"class_list":["post-2351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-commentary","category-a-bit-of-fun","category-stories","tag-discovering-advent","tag-glenn-beck","tag-jerusalem","tag-the-christmas-dog"],"yoast_head":"\nWedged Between Glenn Beck and The Christmas Dog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First, I want to say thanks to those who have purchased my new (and first) e-book, Discovering Advent: How to Experience the Power of Waiting on God at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2011\/11\/23\/wedged-between-glenn-beck-and-the-christmas-dog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wedged Between Glenn Beck and The Christmas Dog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First, I want to say thanks to those who have purchased my new (and first) e-book, Discovering Advent: How to Experience the Power of Waiting on God at\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2011\/11\/23\/wedged-between-glenn-beck-and-the-christmas-dog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark D. 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