Rands has thoughts about difficult problems, or nasty emails, which I find apply perfectly to thinking about sermons/essays/talks/etc.
The active soak is the research phase, where the various bits and pieces about a passage whirl around and congeal and start to make some unified sense. My overall understanding of what I’m about to do comes from this part of my prep.
For me, the passive soak is where my stuff gets interesting. Having understood the big picture, I like to let it brew for a few days, a week, whatever. Things come up in life that would be perfect as an illustration of a difficult point. I think of a great link to a book I read 3 years ago as I’m driving down the M4. A conversation turns to a tangential issue, and helps me see the whole problem anew.
My advice? Soak. It will make your delivery better.
Here’s Ze’s take on it.
Okay. That got screwed. WordPress is so facist.
Here’s another attempt.