Happy Friday Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.Psalm 32:6f
As a Friend: Psalm 32 is one of the better known prayers in the Psalter, but I had not thought much about verse 9 until recently. It reads: Do not be like the horse or the mule,which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Translation? God wants to be our friend. He is not interested in us staying on the path because we have to – i.e., like a mule that is being controlled out of fear – but because we want to. May 2019 be a year in which we follow God less from compulsion and more from our love for Him.
It’s Go Time: The mood swing that sweeps over the country during the next forty-eight hours is unrivaled. During the last week of December – and through most of January first – we are supposed to chill. But on the 2nd we are expected to be running hard, fast and lean. As they say just prior to the green flag that launches the Indy 500: “Drivers, start your engines.”
Want to be Happy in 2019? According to the 2014 study conducted by The Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture, people who are “actively religious”: live longer, stay healthier, experience stronger relationships, exude a more buoyant outlook, enjoy life more independent of their circumstances and report lower levels of anxiety and stress. As the Psalmist declares: Those who trust in the Lord will be joyful.
Virgin Birth: Thirty years ago, I had the privilege of taking two seminar courses with Dr. William Lane Craig. Twenty years ago I brought him to the college campus where I was working to debate a particularly acerbic science professor. Throughout it all, I have read his books and followed his debates – with the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, et al. All of that notwithstanding, I was still surprised to see that Nikolas Kristof, Pulitzer-prize winning NYT columnist, had interviewed him for his Christmas column. Don’t miss it. I’ve linked it here.
Christmas Cards: Things have shifted again. First there were Christmas cards; then there were Christmas cards with notes; then there were Christmas cards with notes and pictures; then there were cards that were pictures, and now there are ecards. For someone who didn’t send out anything this year, I am thinking about this too much. (I feel like my life is over-reported. Know that the boys (and our daughter-in-law Hannah, are all well and we are thankful for more things than we can name). On a related note, if you want to read a copy of my most criticized sermon – which made more than a few observations about life based on Christmas cards – you can click here.
Learning from Lists: Uber-blogger-and-podcast-professional Tim Ferris, whose musings generated close to 400 million downloads in 2018, is out with his list of this year’s most popular podcasts. I keep a jealous eye on Ferris (The Friday Update is about 400 million downloads behind him), so I was aware of his programming. But I was still quite surprised by how many of his most popular podcasts were on things like: psychedelic drugs, LSD, mushrooms, plant medicine, etc.
Quotes Worth Requoting: Overworked schedules lead to underwhelmed souls.Anger destroys the container that holds it.
A Housekeeping Note: As some of you know, I start a two-month sabbatical on January 1, so my normal cadence will be interrupted. I expect to keep The Friday Update going during this break – it pretty much writes itself – but I am making no promises. When I come back I may tweak it a bit, so if you have thoughts on that, send me a note. Also, let me assure all of you who have noted that it is posted at 2 AM – and worry about the hours that I keep – that I send it to proofreaders on Thursday. And after they clean it up, they schedule it to be sent at 2 AM. I haven’t stayed up that late in years.
Closing Prayer: We give you thanks for the babe born in violence. We give you thanks for the miracle of Bethlehem, born into the Jerusalem heritage. We do not understand why the innocents must be slaughtered; we know that your kingdom comes in violence and travail. Our time would be a good time for your kingdom to come, because we have had enough of violence and travail. So we wait with eager longing, and with enormous fear, because your promises do not coincide with our favorite injustices. We pray for the coming of your kingdom on earth as it is around your heavenly throne. We are a people grown weary of waiting. We dwell in the midst of cynical people, and we have settled for what we can control. We do know that you hold the initiative for our lives, that your love planned our salvation before we saw the light of day. And so we wait for your coming, in your vulnerable baby in whom all things are made new. Amen. Walter Brueggemann (1933 – )