Formative Living
Projects · 2026

Things I've built.

A travel tool that does the hotel math for you, a map of how ideas moved through the first thousand years of Christian spirituality, a reader for the Greek New Testament, and a couple of games.

Travel tool History & spirituality Biblical Greek Games
stays.formativeliving.com
Stay Finder showing a New York trip: hotel prices grouped by drive time and the best-fit hotel at $106 a night, 42 minutes away
01 · TRAVEL TOOL

Stay Finder

Ranks hotels by the nightly price and the drive to where you're actually going.

The cheapest hotel is rarely the best deal once you count the drive, and the closest one is rarely worth what it costs. Stay Finder gathers the Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Hyatt hotels around your destination, checks their nightly prices, routes the drive from each one, and ranks them by what a shorter drive is worth to you.

  • A price-versus-drive chart and a map, with the best fit called out
  • A "comfort zone" for price and drive time, and how firmly to hold to it
  • At-a-glance price bands by drive time, rush hour included
  • Shared trips for friends and family, each with their own shortlist and bookings
Node.jsVanilla JSLeafletOpenStreetMapOSRM routing
Open Stay Finder Password protected. Ask me for access.
masters.formativeliving.com
A Cloud of Witnesses: title page with the Hebrews 12:1 quotation and a timeline of lifespans with council markers
02 · HISTORY & SPIRITUALITY

A Cloud of Witnesses

The spiritual masters of Christianity's first thousand years, and the threads that run between them.

Apostles and martyrs, Desert Fathers and Mothers, bishops, monks and hymn-writers, from AD 30 to the parting of the Greek East and Latin West in 1054. Reading one life at a time misses how ideas and practices passed from teacher to student and across centuries, so this site is built around those connections, each one tied to its ancient source.

69masters, East & West
75documented connections
105works, with free texts linked
7councils, plus the schism
  • A zoomable timeline of lifespans, East and West side by side
  • Idea threads, journeys, and the stories of the councils
  • A historical map with a century slider and each master's travels
Single HTML fileSVG mapsNatural EarthNo frameworks
Explore the site
greekreader.formativeliving.com
Greek Reader showing John 1 with the word παρέλαβον selected: its parsing, the parts παρ-έ-λαβ-ον, what the compound is built from, and the principal parts of λαμβάνω
03 · BIBLICAL GREEK

Greek Reader

Read the Greek New Testament, and click any word you don't know.

For students who have learned the basics and want to read. Click a word and it tells you what form it is, what it means here, how it is built, the paradigm it follows, and how it fits its sentence. The English stays hidden until you ask for it, and every word you look up goes on a list, so you can see what you haven't learned yet.

3books: John, Philippians & 1 Thessalonians
18,757words, each one parsed
1,369dictionary words
2lexicons, plus BSB & WEB
  • Paradigms with the exact form highlighted, and every form found in the NT
  • Word parts and principal parts, so second aorists stop being a mystery
  • What each word goes with in its sentence, with notes on the constructions
  • Compounds explained: παρα- “beside” + λαμβάνω “receive”
Vanilla JSNestle 1904MACULA syntax treesAbbott-SmithNo frameworks
Start reading
FOR FUN

Games

Two games that run in the browser, on a computer or a phone.

Chess Coach: a 3D chess board with a blue hint arrow on the d-pawn, and the coach panel suggesting d4 because it puts a pawn in the center
Learn chess

Chess Coach

A 3D chess game for complete beginners. You play against the Stockfish engine at six levels, from very forgiving to full strength, while a coach rates every move and explains it in plain English.

It warns when a piece is under attack, marks unsafe squares, offers two-step hints, lets you take back a mistake, and walks through the whole game afterward.

Play chess chess.formativeliving.com
 Swarm Strike mid-game: an alien formation at the top while a boss sends its striped tractor beam down toward the player's ship
Arcade

Swarm Strike

A classic arcade space shooter, built from scratch in one file. Aliens swoop in, settle into formation, then dive at you. Bosses can catch your ship in a tractor beam; win it back and you fly two fighters side by side.

Pixel art and sound are all generated in the browser. Play with the keyboard, or on a phone: hold and drag to fly, and it fires for you.

Play now formativeliving.com/swarm-strike
ELSEWHERE

Writing & coaching

My blog, and my coaching practice.

The Fuzzythinking blog: a lake under summer clouds with the heading Fuzzy Thoughts of David
Blog

Fuzzythinking

Thoughts on John Wesley, the United Methodist Church, life, faith, and anything else. Also notes from my sabbatical, my dissertation project, and good books.

Read the blog davidmullens.com
 Moving Toward Clarity: a calm lake with the words Pursuing Purpose? Seeking Clarity?
Coaching

Moving Toward Clarity

Coaching for people seeking clarity, focus and purpose, and wanting to live fully into their calling. It draws on more than 25 years as a pastor and training in spiritual formation and non-directive coaching.

The glory of God is the human person fully alive.St. Irenaeus
Visit the site movingtowardclarity.com